Whereas COVID-19 is likely to delay review timelines of many M&A deals, it may also make some approvals easier.

Key Points:

..COVID-19 will undoubtedly impact review timelines of mergers. Competition authorities may ask parties to postpone their notifications and may recourse to “stop the clock” mechanisms to buy additional time, notably where third parties complain and extensive market testing is required.

..Merging parties should put in place strategies to anticipate and mitigate risks of delay such as preparing concise and persuasive draft filings, engaging early with authority officials, and exploring options to obtain derogations to allow closing before clearance.

..The market impact of COVID-19 may also open the door to discussions on theories that would have been otherwise more difficult to successfully argue pre-crisis, notably where the target is in financial distress or when the theory of harm depends on rivals’ spare capacity.