Matthew Giles is a global professional support lawyer - Antitrust/Competition at Covington & Burling. Up till July 2023, he wasa senior knowledge lawyer with Hogan Lovells in the Antitrust, Competition and Economic Regulation (ACER) practice in London – working with ACER’s London and Brussels-based lawyers (and their clients) to help meet their training and knowledge management needs.
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An EU Advocate General has advised that an appeal brought by Altice should be dismissed in its entirety – in effect confirming the validity of a 2018 European Commission decision imposing a record fine on Altice for breaching EU merger control rules in relation to its 2015 purchase of (...)
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The CMA has concluded that a merger between the two largest suppliers of ready to bake products to UK grocery retailers should be unwound, highlighting the risks of choosing to complete mergers without first receiving CMA clearance. On 20 January 2023, the UK Competition and Markets (...)
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The European Commission has adopted guidelines addressing the application of EU competition law to the "solo self-employed". The guidelines clarify situations in which certain self-employed individuals may work collectively to seek improvements in working conditions without falling foul of (...)
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The UK Government this week prohibited the acquisition of intellectual property owned by the University of Manchester by a Chinese company – marking the first time the UK Government has exercised its powers to block a transaction under new national security rules. On 20 July 2022, the UK’s (...)
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The UK Government recently announced a series of reforms for strengthening the UK competition regime, including measures that will increase penalties for non-compliance, speed up antitrust investigations and permit better scrutiny of certain mergers – in particular, ‘killer acquisitions’ (...)
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In what could herald the most significant changes to the UK competition regime in 25 years, the UK Government has announced a series of proposed reforms to UK competition law enforcement. The stated aims of the reforms are to produce a “best in class” competition regime to allow the UK to (...)
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The UK Government is consulting on proposed powers for the recently launched Digital Markets Unit. This is a significant juncture in the reconfiguration of the post-Brexit regulatory landscape, marked by a determination to be a world leader in the regulation of digital markets. This (...)
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The UK Government has been busy adding flesh to the bare bones of the domestic subsidy control regime that has been in place since the start of 2021 following the signing of the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). The Subsidy Control Bill introduced before Parliament on 30 June (...)
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The UK’s much publicised National Security and Investment Bill has now been granted Royal Assent – passing into law an Act which will significantly affect the way investments in the UK can be reviewed by the Government where they raise national security considerations. The Act introduces a (...)
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The UK Government has launched the much anticipated Digital Markets Unit (DMU) as a first step towards an “unashamedly pro-competition" regime focused on the position of “tech giants”. The DMU will, however, initially lack its own enforcement powers and there is still a lot to play for in (...)
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The United Kingdom and the European Union are set to take bold strides towards the regulation of digital markets in coming months. While both are broadly aligned in their intention to better regulate large tech companies, the extent to which their post-Brexit regulatory approaches might (...)
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A new National Security and Investment Bill laid before the UK Parliament this week will, on enactment, significantly affect the way investments in the UK can be reviewed by the UK Government where they raise national security considerations. The new legislation replaces stop-gap provisions (...)
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Competition/antitrust laws generally require rival firms to operate on the market independently of each other and tolerate cooperation between competitors only in limited circumstances where any resulting loss of competition is clearly offset by consumer benefits. But as businesses scramble to (...)
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The UK Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") recently issued its Annual Plan for 2020/2021, which aims to give clarity to the CMA’s objectives for the next year. The report acknowledges that its publication comes out at a time of massive social and economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 (...)
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On 27 June 2019, the European Commission (Commission) announced it had fined Japanese camera and printer manufacturer, Canon, €28m for partially implementing its 2016 acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems prior to the transaction being notified to the Commission and, as a result, before it (...)
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On 4 April 2019, the European Commission published the much anticipated Report Competition Policy for the digital era (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). Authored by a panel of special advisers (all academics) appointed by Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, the Report (...)
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On 10 January 2019, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it had fined European Metal Recycling Ltd (EMR) and its parent company, Ausurus Group Ltd, £300,000 for allegedly breaching an initial enforcement order (IEO) issued in relation to the CMA’s Phase 2 investigation (...)
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Office of Fair Trading, 20 November 2006, Decision n° CA98/05/2006, Exchange of information on future fees by certain independent fee-paying schools, Case CE/2890-03 In late December 2006, the UK Office of Fair Trading ("OFT") published a decision in which it found the exchange of (...)
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On 8 November 2005, the Irish government announced that it would revoke the much maligned Restrictive Practices (Groceries) Order 1987 (“Groceries Order”) legislation that was enacted to tackle anti-competitive below-cost pricing conducted by large retailers. In its place, the government (...)
