The Situation: To address a perceived enforcement gap, the European Commission ("EC") has issued guidelines expanding the types of non-reportable transactions subject to its "upward referral mechanism," which permits EU...more
Last week, a Mayer Brown team joined over 4,000 lawyers from around the globe—including top enforcers from the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Department of Justice (“DOJ”), and the European Union (“EU”)—to discuss new...more
On 24 January 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) unveiled its proposals to reform the current EU Foreign Direct Investment Screening Regulation 2019/452 (“FDI Screening Regulation”). This forms part of a wider...more
The European Commission’s (“Commission”) substantially revised Market Definition Notice (“Revised Notice”) will make it significantly easier for it to allege that mergers and other transactions (“mergers”) are likely to...more
In both our DAMITT 2021 Report and our Q1 2022 Report, we warned that parties to transactions subject to significant merger investigations were more likely to see the FTC or DOJ sue to block their deal or push them to abandon...more
In a recent high-profile judgment, the EU’s General Court confirmed that the European Commission (“EC”) can, upon referral by a national competition authority in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), review deals that do not...more
In the U.S., “significant” merger investigations include Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act reportable transactions for which the result of the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Antitrust Division of the...more
The Dechert Antitrust Merger Investigation Timing Tracker (DAMITT) is a quarterly release from Dechert LLP’s Antitrust/Competition practice reporting on trends in significant merger control investigations in the United States...more
Foreign investment control has become a key factor in M&A deals and 2020 was a particularly eventful year. A large number of countries have recently introduced foreign investment control regimes (or tightened their existing...more
On 14 January, the German Parliament passed far-reaching amendments of German antitrust law, the Act against Restraints of Competition (ARC), which also affect merger control. The amendment, also known as the "German...more
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on 6 November published draft updates to two of its merger guidance documents (CMA2 and CMA56) in preparation for the end of the Brexit Transition Period on 31 December 2020....more
In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, many companies will be facing significant financial difficulties for which the only viable solution to remain a going concern will be acquisition by another company. It is safe to predict...more