Hot on the heels of the UK government’s February 2025 draft "strategic steer", the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published a new Mergers Charter. The Charter details principles the CMA will apply when engaging...more
Chief executive of the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sarah Cardell, has announced that the authority will launch a review of its approach to merger remedies in early 2025.
Most notably, this will include a...more
This newsletter is a summary of the antitrust developments we think are most interesting to your business. James Webber (partner based in London) and Jess Bowring (counsel based in London) are our editors this month. They...more
9/30/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Competition ,
Corporate Governance ,
Draft Guidance ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Global Dealmaking ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Threshold Requirements ,
UK
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 will introduce groundbreaking new rules to regulate digital markets in the U.K. It aims to boost competition by controlling the conduct of the largest digital firms,...more
6/3/2024
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Digital Marketplace ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
EU ,
Merger Controls ,
Pending Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Technology Sector ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 will result in a landmark overhaul of the U.K. consumer protection regime. It will dramatically increase the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA's) enforcement powers...more
6/3/2024
/ Competition ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Digital Marketplace ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Penalties ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Technology Sector ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 will in the main start to take effect in stages later in 2024 and will bolster the powers of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to enforce U.K. antitrust rules....more
6/3/2024
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Compliance ,
Digital Marketplace ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
EU ,
Investigations ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Remedies ,
Technology Sector ,
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)
Shearman & Sterling advises on many of the most significant subsidy matters in the UK and European Union. As part of this work, we have seen the increasing role that subsidy has played in the policy choices made by...more
In a decision of major importance for litigation in the UK, the UK Supreme Court has held that litigation funding agreements (“LFAs”) under which a litigation funder receives a percentage of any damages recovered by the...more
Overview -
- The European Court of Justice (CJEU) brought back to life an old theory which allows acquisitions, which fall below EU and national merger control thresholds, to be challenged post-completion under abuse of...more
The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) entered into force on 12 January 2023. It represents a massive expansion in the European Commission’s power to investigate inward investment to the EU. This new regulation—the first...more
The high production costs of renewable hydrogen (RH2) limit its ability to compete with alternative non-renewable fuels and technologies. This is exacerbated by a number of market failures (including failure of carbon pricing...more
12/2/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Energy Market ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
Green Energy ,
Green Finance ,
Hydrogen Power ,
Member State ,
Private Equity Funds ,
Renewable Energy ,
Sustainable Finance
Will 2022 be seen as the year in which the gates finally opened for damages claims in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT)?...more
Quick Read -
- The EU’s jurisdiction to review mergers is no longer linked to notification. This is a big change and sharply reduces parties’ ability to predict antitrust hurdles to closing based on notification thresholds....more
On 18 May 2022, the European General Court rejected Canon’s appeal against a €28 million fine imposed by the European Commission in 2019 for its breach of EU gun-jumping rules, just a few months after a similar judgment,...more
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is expected to be granted wider jurisdictional powers for merger control enforcement in legislative proposals mentioned in today’s Queen’s Speech. The powers derive from the...more
On 26 January 2022 the General Court (GC) issued its latest judgment in the Intel case, faulting fundamental aspects of the Commission’s original decision almost 13 years prior. The judgment’s findings are promising for...more
Holds Findings Made by European Courts Cannot Be Relied on in Different Context in Other Proceedings -
On November 6, 2020 the U.K. Supreme Court handed down a judgment relating to the Servier U.K. competition damages...more
On 11 November 2020, the U.K. Government announced long-awaited and extensive reforms to the U.K. foreign investment regime.
The reforms proposed are more significant than anticipated and include a mandatory notification...more
In her first speech upon being reappointed as Competition Commissioner, Commissioner Vestager announced that a review would be undertaken of the Commission’s Market Definition Notice (the “Notice”); the consultation on that...more
10/12/2020
/ Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
EU ,
EU Merger Directive ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
COVID-19 has acted as an accelerator, bringing into play scenarios which were previously only contingencies and making contingencies of (and requiring planning for) situations which were previously barely imaginable. The debt...more
On 1 July 2020, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a statement outlining a series of regulatory initiatives aimed at Google and Facebook, focussed on digital advertising. This follows the release of...more
The U.K. Supreme Court has handed victory to a group of British retailers (the “respondents”) in a long-running dispute with Mastercard and Visa Europe (the “appellants”) finding that the default “multilateral interchange...more
On June 17, 2020, the European Commission published its highly anticipated White Paper detailing its “anti-subsidy tool,” aimed at rectifying supposed distortions in the EU caused by foreign subsidies. Stakeholders have until...more
Under the leadership of Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission has taken an increasing interventionist stand across all areas of antitrust enforcement, in particular in merger control. The EU’s General Court dealt that...more