This newsletter is a summary of the antitrust developments we think are most interesting to your business. David Higbee (Global Head of Antitrust) and Dominic Long (Global Deputy Head of Antitrust) are our editors this month....more
6/6/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Australia ,
Competition Act ,
Compliance ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
French Competition Authority ,
Guidance Update ,
Healthcare ,
Investment ,
Mergers ,
No-Poaching ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has finally been enacted. It introduces significant changes to U.K. merger control and antitrust rules, establishes a new consumer protection regime and introduces a...more
6/3/2024
/ Antitrust Division ,
Competition Act ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
EU ,
Investigations ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
New Rules ,
Online Platforms ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Technology Sector ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) took effect in July 2023. It aims to regulate subsidies granted by non-EU countries to ensure that they do not distort competition in the EU internal market. For dealmakers, it is...more
2/29/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
EU ,
Filing Requirements ,
Foreign Subsidiaries ,
Foreign Subsidies ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
International Trade ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
Mergers ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements
Antitrust authorities continue to use powers to review deals that fall below merger control filing thresholds. For merging parties this means uncertainty. It is crucial that the possibility of review – including a...more
2/28/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Competition Authorities ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Foreign Subsidiaries ,
Investment ,
Member State ,
Mergers ,
Private Equity Funds ,
Threshold Requirements
The EU is concerned about subsidies granted by non-EU countries to businesses active in the EU that could distort competition in EU markets.
The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) establishes a new suspensory notification...more
The EU is concerned about subsidies granted by non-EU countries to businesses active in the EU, that could distort competition in EU markets.
The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) establishes a new regime, enforced by the...more
The European Commission (EC) and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have published new guidance on the assessment of cooperation between competitors. For the EU, this is contained in revised Guidelines on...more
9/13/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
EU ,
Horizontal Agreements ,
Information Sharing ,
Mergers ,
New Guidance ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
The UK government has published a much-anticipated Bill which will make significant changes to the UK competition and consumer rules and bolster the powers of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Revised merger...more
The UK government has published a much-anticipated Bill to shake up the competition and consumer regime. Front and centre is a brand new UK digital markets regime. The new rules aim to boost competition in the digital sector...more
The European Commission (EC) has been considering procedural amendments to the EU merger control rules since August 2016. It wants to simplify the review process for deals that are unlikely to raise antitrust concerns and to...more
Antitrust authorities continued their aggressive campaign against procedural merger control infringements in 2022. A total of EUR113.8m fines were imposed in 70 decisions across the jurisdictions surveyed....more
We have collected and analysed data on merger control activity for 2022 from 26 jurisdictions. We give you the key trends and developments from the past year, focusing in particular on the EU, UK, U.S. and China.
...more
On 20 October 2022, an adviser (Advocate General) to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recommended that the ECJ uphold the European Commission (EC)’s appeal of a 2020 judgment by the lower-tier General Court (GC), which set...more
UK competition rules are facing unprecedented levels of change. Last month we reported on the UK Government’s intentions for broad reforms to the competition and consumer law regimes. Now, the Government has set out the...more
This is a focus for antitrust regulators across the globe, which is playing out most publicly in the context of acquisitions and business practices, in particular in the digital sector, that threaten nascent competitors and...more
On 21 May 2021, the UK's specialist competition court, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) gave judgment dismissing Sabre Corporation (Sabre)'s challenge to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)'s decision to prohibit...more
Antitrust authorities remained highly active in 2020, despite the pandemic reducing overall global M&A, according to our latest annual survey of global merger control enforcement trends across 26 jurisdictions....more
The European Commission (EC) has published its draft Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will introduce broad reforms to the application of EU competition law to ‘gatekeepers’ in the digital sector. The proposals set out...more
The table below sets out an overview, based on our current awareness of the position as regards foreign investment control, of the different approaches being taken by authorities around the world in response to the Covid-19...more
Hot on the heels of the publication of draft merger guidelines on procedure, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has released proposed revised draft guidelines on its substantive competition assessment of...more
The UK’s competition authority has stepped up its enforcement of procedural breaches of merger control rules in the past 12 months. This is part of a global trend that has seen enforcement fines exceed EUR140 million globally...more
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published a document setting out its digital markets strategy and, in parallel, has launched a market study into online platforms and digital advertising. These developments...more
On 3 June the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published an independent report it had commissioned by Lear (an economics consultancy) aimed at evaluating past merger decisions in the digital sector taken by the...more
On 4 April the European Commission published an expert report on how competition policy should evolve in the digital era.
The report, titled “Competition Policy for the Digital Era”, has been prepared by a panel of three...more
The Senior Director for Antitrust Enforcement of the Competition and Markets Authority, Ann Pope, gave a speech in late 2018 on its competition enforcement work to date and what lies ahead.
Ms Pope discussed the increase in...more