International Comparative Legal Guides Merger Control in the United Kingdom
10 December 2021
The Ashurst Competition team in London has contributed an overview and analysis of the latest developments in merger control in the United Kingdom.
The article covers the developments after the expiry of the Brexit Transition Period on 31 December 2020, where the EU Merger Regulation regime ceased to apply to the UK, other than in relation to certain transactions "in flight" prior to that date. Transaction can now be subject to EU and UK merger control in parallel.
Some highlights include discussion that a merger decision based on incomplete information may also be vulnerable to challenge, citing recent examples of UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) and UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decisions.
In addition, the CMA also signed new framework agreements with five of its international counterpart competition authorities to improve cooperation on investigations in September 2020.
The authors also outline the emergence of the UK Government Digital Markets Unit (DMU) and CMA's second Digital Markets Strategy and Digital Markets Taskforce.
Read the chapter in full on the ICLG website.
Chapter content includes:
- Relevant authorities and legislation
- Transactions caught by merger control legislation
- Notification and its impact on the transaction timetable
- Substantive assessment of the merger and outcome of the process
- The end of the process: Remedies, appeals and enforcement
- Miscellaneous
- Is merger control fit for digital services and products?
Authors: Nigel Parr (Partner), Duncan Liddell (Partner), Steven Vaz (Partner)
