2024 is shaping up to be a year of significant change in Brussels. European Parliamentary elections in June will be followed by the appointment of a new Commission in the autumn....more
1/29/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
EUMR ,
European Commission ,
Foreign Direct Investment ,
Foreign Subsidies ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Jurisdiction ,
Member State ,
Merger Controls ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Sustainability
As we reported previously, on 25 April this year the UK Government introduced the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (“DMCC Bill”). Many of the headlines about the DMCC Bill have understandably related to the new...more
6/20/2023
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Competition Act ,
Complex Corporate Transactions ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Digital Marketplace ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Threshold Requirements ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
On 16 March 2023, the ECJ published its judgment in Towercast (C-449/21), confirming that Article 102 TFEU (which prohibits abuses of a dominant market position) may apply to transactions which fall below national and EU...more
As we enter 2023, the European Commission is redoubling its efforts to scrutinise transactions on a variety of bases. The focus has been on the digital sector for some time, but the impact of the Commission’s expanding...more
1/19/2023
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Acquisitions ,
Competition ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Foreign Direct Investment ,
Foreign Subsidies ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies
The Digital Markets Act (DMA), introduces stricter rules for ‘big tech’ in the EU and comes into force today, November 1 2022. The DMA forms part of the European Commission’s new package of legislation governing conduct in...more
Following on from its first annual report on the National Security and Investment Act (“NSIA”) in June 2022 ), on 19 July 2022 the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) published its first set of...more
7/26/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Annual Reports ,
BEIS ,
Insolvency ,
National Security ,
New Guidance ,
Notice Requirements ,
Reorganizations ,
Shareholders ,
Transfer of Control ,
UK
In 2020, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced a new policy, under which the Commission will entertain requests from Member States to review mergers that do not meet the notification thresholds for...more
The new National Security and Investment Bill, which aims to provide the Government with the necessary powers to scrutinise and intervene in business transactions to protect national security, will introduce a mandatory...more
On 15 December 2020, the European Commission released two much anticipated proposals for new regulations governing conduct in the digital space – the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”) and the Digital Services Act (“DSA”).
These...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has made 2020 a difficult year for many companies looking to do deals. Competition agencies and other government regulators have in many cases slowed down their timeframes or even refused to accept...more
BCLP’s global Antitrust & Competition team have been tracking the various ways COVID-19 is impacting antitrust enforcement, merger control, state aid and foreign direct investment rules ("FDI") in key jurisdictions around the...more
For almost as long as EU merger control has existed, scholars and practitioners have discussed and debated the European Commission’s (EC) split roles as investigator, prosecutor, judge, and jury under the EU Merger Regulation...more
BCLP’s global Antitrust & Competition team have been tracking the various ways COVID-19 is impacting antitrust enforcement, merger control, state aid and foreign direct investment rules ("FDI") in key jurisdictions around the...more
7/6/2020
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
State Aid
BCLP’s global Antitrust & Competition team have been tracking the various ways COVID-19 is impacting antitrust enforcement, merger control, state aid and foreign direct investment rules ("FDI") in key jurisdictions around the...more
BCLP’s global Antitrust & Competition team have been tracking the various ways COVID-19 is impacting antitrust enforcement, merger control, state aid and foreign direct investment rules ("FDI") in key jurisdictions around the...more
Merger Control & Foreign Investment -
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, competition agencies across the globe have been required to adjust their work patterns and re-allocate resources to the most urgent aspects of...more
The global COVID-19 pandemic is placing an unprecedented strain on healthcare systems around the world. At the same time, the knock on effects of the pandemic are hitting businesses and public authorities hard....more
The dawn of a new year provides a great opportunity to take stock of where EU merger control might go in the next year. In this blog, we outline what we consider to be five key trends to watch out for in EU merger control in...more
1/8/2020
/ Big Data ,
Canon ,
Competition Act ,
Consultation ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
General Electric ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Member State ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Technology Sector ,
Toshiba ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
On 17 May 2019, the Hong Kong Competition Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) passed an important milestone when it issued its first two findings of infringement of the city’s competition law regime.
The judgments serve as a...more
5/23/2019
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Bid Rigging ,
Breach of Competition Law ,
Cartels ,
Competition ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Hong Kong ,
Hong Kong Competition Commission (HKCC) ,
Information Technology ,
Infringement ,
Price-Fixing
Over the last year, we have noted an increased crackdown by competition agencies on so-called “gun jumping” – that is, the implementation of a merger before mandatory merger clearances are received. On 31 May 2018, the...more