"We believe we acted in good faith to meet the EC disclosure requirements and there was no intent to mislead," GE said in a statement.

The European Commission said it had sent three separate charge sheets, known as statements of objections, to Merck and Sigma-Aldrich, General Electric and Canon.

While the charges will not affect the EU approvals of the deals, they could lead to fines up to 1 percent of global revenue for GE.

(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel)