Kate Kelliher

In November 2020, the UK published a draft of its new National Security and Investment Bill ("NSIB"), heralding the introduction of a new regime for reviewing investments on national security grounds. The Bill introduced a mandatory pre-screening mechanism for certain deals involving (...)

State aid remained one of the key sticking points in Brexit negotiations right until the announcement of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement ("TCA") on Christmas Eve 2020. One of the key priorities of the European Union ("EU") during the negotiations was to secure a "level playing field" on (...)

In a landmark judgment (and in unusual circumstances), the UK Supreme Court has held that the ongoing Merricks v Mastercard case should be referred back to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). Not only is this a step towards Merricks’ claim that interchange fees were "an invisible tax on UK (...)

In anticipation of the wave of requests from stricken companies due to the COVID-19 outbreak for more long-term State support, on 8 May, the Commission extended the scope of its State aid Temporary Framework to allow Member States to take stakes in non-financial companies affected by the (...)

The CMA has published new guidance on its approach to merger assessments during the Coronavirus pandemic, confirming that it does not intend to change either merger control assessments or deadlines, despite the outbreak. The guidance acknowledges that merging parties may have difficulty (...)

On 3 April, the Commission adopted an Amendment to extend the Temporary Framework for State aid measures to support the economy in the COVID-19 outbreak adopted on 19 March (covered in our previous alert : European Commission publishes its emergency COVID-19 State aid rules and rapidly approves (...)