Why Would the EU Put the Kibosh on Bayer's Acquisition of Monsanto?

By Alex Berezow — August 23, 2017

Last year, Bayer announced its intention to purchase (in cash!) Monsanto. This posed something of an existential dilemma for anti-GMO movements like March Against Monsanto and the Non-GMO Project, which would have to pick a new bogeyman in their war against biotechnology. Making matters worse, Bayer is consistently ranked as one of the world's most reputable companies.

But the acquisition may not go through. Multiple media outlets have reported that European Union regulators are skeptical of the merger. Why?

One's initial impulse might be that the EU simply doesn't like GMOs (which is true), so it will make an example of Monsanto by blocking its acquisition by Bayer. But that doesn't appear to be the case. According to the Wall Street Journal, the EU approved mergers between DuPont and Dow Chemical as well as Syngenta and ChemChina, albeit after various concessions were made. (Both DuPont and Syngenta sell GMOs.).....To Read More.....

My Take - I'm not overly worried about so-called monopolies - provided they're not imposed by the government.  As for airline regulations - are we so sure these are truly unregulated?  If that's so - why isn't there more and better competition?  When Standard of New Jersey pretty much cornered the oil market under Rockefeller - he caused the price of oil to drop dramatically, and his service was top notch.  Why?  Because if a legitimate monopoly comes into existence they must maintain price, quality and service or someone will come along and take it from them.  I'm of the opinion only government sponsored and maintained monopolies are abusive, maybe I'm wrong, but as for EU claims of concern - they're nuts in almost everything else - so why should we think this is any different?