A legal opinion on the other side of Planet Earth put some juice into 's (NASDAQ: ILMN) stock on Thursday. The gene-sequencing specialist saw its share price rise by over 3%, against the S 500 index's 0.3% bump, on strong indication that a regulator's move against the company might soon be reversed.

That day, a senior advisor to the European Commission (EC) -- the European Union's (EU) executive arm that also holds certain regulatory powers -- criticized the Commission's ruling on an Illumina acquisition. Specifically, this was the company's $8 billion cash-and-stock deal to purchase cancer detection company Grail, agreed in 2020.

In 2021, the EC blocked the deal following requests from a clutch of EU countries. This, despite the fact that the purchase was under the revenue threshold according to EU regulations. The Commission cited a rarely used power known as Article 22 as the basis for its decision.

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Source Fool.com