Illumina Shares Rise After EU Court Ruling

Shares of U.S. gene sequencing firm Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) saw a slight increase in premarket trading following a favorable ruling from the European Union’s top court.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled against an EU Commission decision to probe Illumina’s $7.1 billion acquisition of cancer screening company Grail. This legal battle between the European Commission and Illumina has persisted, with the Commission attempting to investigate despite Grail lacking presence within the EU and the merger’s revenues falling below EU assessment thresholds.

The CJEU stated that the Commission is “not authorised to encourage or accept referrals of proposed concentrations without a European dimension from national competition authorities where those authorities are not competent to examine those proposed concentrations under their own national law.”

The ruling overrides the Commission’s prior decision and is final. This victory comes after Illumina was compelled to spin off Grail in June to comply with EU regulations. Moreover, the ruling absolves Illumina from repaying a 432 million euro fine imposed by the EU for proceeding with the 2021 acquisition without necessary approvals.

In response, the EU Commission announced it would evaluate the next steps to manage cases that impact Europe but do not meet standard EU notification criteria.