Matt Evans

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is consulting on changes to the UK merger regime proposed to reduce the burden of investigations into mergers where the parties operate in small markets. UK merger control process The UK operates a two-stage merger control regime. Before (...)

UK merger control process The UK operates a two-stage merger control regime. Before starting a formal merger investigation, the CMA will conduct pre-notification discussions with the parties, which typically last one to two months. Upon conclusion of these discussions, the CMA opens a formal (...)

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have published for public comment proposed Antitrust Guidelines for International Enforcement and Cooperation ("2016 Proposed Guidelines"). This would be the third iteration of international enforcement guidelines, following the (...)

An advisor to Europe’s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU"), is encouraging the CJEU to adopt a strict standard for companies to distance themselves from potentially anticompetitive actions by a third party with which they do business. In a case involving (...)

The UK Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") published a report on 7 July 2015 setting out its provisional findings in a market investigation of the energy sector, in particular for gas and electricity at both wholesale and retail levels in the UK. Market investigations involve in-depth (...)

As of April 1, 2014, the UK will have a new competition law enforcer. To date, the UK has been unusual among European Union (EU) Member States in having two distinct competition authorities, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission (CC). They will now be replaced by a (...)

The UK’s New Civil Antitrust Investigations Regime* From April 1, a new regime for civil antitrust investigations applies in the UK with the entry into effect of the new Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) (see Antitrust Alert). The CMA has recently published guidance on how this new regime (...)

Last week the UK Competition Commission (CC) required airline Ryanair to reduce its 29.8% shareholding in rival Aer Lingus to 5 per cent. The CC ruled that Ryanair’s gradual acquisition of its existing minority shareholding (i) created a relevant merger situation and (ii) had led or may be (...)

The UK Competition Commission (“CC”) has prohibited Eurotunnel from operating ferry services at the port of Dover, following its June 2012 acquisition of three SeaFrance vessels. The decision is notable for two reasons. First, this decision differed from that of the French Competition Authority (...)

The UK Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) has published new guidelines on how it will set fines for competition law violations (“Guidelines”). The Guidelines take into account developments in case law since the 2004 previous guidelines and bring the OFT’s policy on financial sanctions into line with (...)

On 21 March, the Competition Commission ("CC") announced that it will require U.S. firm Stericycle to sell Ecowaste Southwest Limited ("ESL") – a company it bought just over a year ago. On what basis has the buyer found itself in such an unsatisfactory situation ? The answer probably lies (...)

On 2 March 2011, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) made a ’fast-track’ reference to the Competition Commission (CC) of the travel agency joint venture proposed by Thomas Cook, Co-operative Group, and Midlands Co-operative Society. This is the first time the OFT has used this procedure since (...)

On 12 November 2010, the Court of Appeal for England and Wales ruled that the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) does not have discretion to extend the time period within which follow-on actions for damages may be commenced. The Court of Appeal’s judgment provides important clarification of (...)

On 30 April 2010, the Office of Fair Trading (« OFT ») announced it was dropping a number of allegations in its dairy cartel investigation. The OFT conceded there was insufficient evidence of antitrust infringement in the information exchanges it had been investigating since 2003. The OFT (...)

On 19 November 2009, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) confirmed the test it will apply when assessing whether to extend the time limit by which claimants may commence follow-on actions for damages before the CAT once there has been a finding of a breach of UK or EU competition law. The (...)

On 11 November 2009, the European Commission (the « Commission ») fined 24 companies a total of € 173 million for operating cartel arrangements in the plastic additive sector. The companies fixed prices, shared customers, allocated markets, and exchanged sensitive commercial information for tin (...)

On 18 August 2009, the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) published a consultation on significant proposed changes to its guidance on the adoption of competition disqualification orders (CDOs) against company directors. The OFT’s proposed changes present a significantly more aggressive approach in (...)

The global financial crisis has seen competition authorities come under pressure to relax their interpretation of competition laws in order to help companies weather the current financial storm. In general, competition authorities have been reluctant to do so, on the basis that in such (...)