4. The management of every undertaking belonging to the Community-scale group of undertakings and the central management or the deemed central management within the meaning of the second subparagraph of paragraph 2 of the Community-scale undertaking or group of undertakings shall be responsible for obtaining and transmitting to the parties concerned by the application of this Directive the information required for commencing the negotiations referred to in Article 5, and in particular the information concerning the structure of the undertaking or the group and its workforce.

The mechanisms for informing and consulting employees in undertakings or groups of undertakings operating in two or more Member States must encompass all of the establishments or, as the case may be, the group’s undertakings located within the Member States, regardless of whether the undertaking or the group’s controlling undertaking has its central management inside or outside the territory of the Member States.

4. The management of every undertaking belonging to the Community-scale group of undertakings and the central management or the deemed central management within the meaning of the second subparagraph of paragraph 2 of the Community-scale undertaking or group of undertakings shall be responsible for obtaining and transmitting to the parties concerned by the application of this Directive the information required for commencing the negotiations referred to in Article 5, and in particular the information concerning the structure of the undertaking or the group and its workforce.

(12)‘group’ means a group of undertakings which consists of a parent undertaking, its subsidiaries and the entities in which the parent undertaking or its subsidiaries hold a participation, or undertakings linked to each other by a relationship within the meaning of Article 12(1) of Directive 83/349/EEC, including any subgroup thereof.

3. Notwithstanding paragraph 2, where a Community-scale group of undertakings within the meaning of Article 2 (1) (c) comprises one or more undertakings or groups of undertakings which are Community-scale undertakings or Community-scale groups of undertakings within the meaning of Article 2 (1) (a) or (c), a European Works Council shall be established at the level of the group unless the agreements referred to in Article 6 provide otherwise.

Since the Thyssen Group companies belong to the "West" Rationalization Group and the Rheinstahl Group companies to the "Westfalen" Group, the result of the proposed merger would be that the new Thyssen/Rheinstahl Group would belong to two competing organizations. There would then be a danger that normal competition between the Thyssen/Rheinstahl Group, Estel (Hoesch-Hoogovens) and Krupp Groups would be prevented. These three Groups account for some 22 % of crude steel production in the Community.