Global foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to 1,426 billion USD in 2019. In recent years, a number of countries around the world have implemented measures to strengthen their FDI review mechanisms. Undoubtedly, this worldwide trend is having an impact on international mergers and acquisitions transactions as illustrated by a number of cases highlighted in the media.

Recently, there have been a number of important legal developments at European and international levels, including the broadening and enhancement of existing foreign investment review mechanisms in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and the United States, to name but a few.