On 18 March 2020 the time limit for the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (DCCA) to assess a merger notification was suspended initially by two weeks.
The suspension was later extended until 14 April 2020 (for further details please see "DCCA enforcement: merger control suspended") and subsequently until 10 May 2020.
On 16 March 2020 significant parts of Denmark's public administration were shut down for two weeks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the shutdown has since been prolonged and is still ongoing. In April 2020 the shutdown began to ease up, as parts of the public administration (including schools and national courts) were reopened. However, the merger control time limit suspension remained and was extended by executive order until 10 May 2020.
In a press release, the DCCA stated that it will continue to try and comply with the ordinary time limits and emphasised that four mergers had been approved within said time limits and no mergers had exceeded them since 18 March 2020.
