Foreign investment continues to garner a great deal of attention. This trend is expected to continue as the global economy further integrates, the number of cross-border and international transactions keeps increasing, and national governments continue to regulate foreign investment in their jurisdictions to an unprecedented degree. Reviews of cross-border mergers have, in some instances, been characterised recently by a rising tension between normative competition and antitrust considerations on the one hand, and national and public-interest considerations on the other; the latter sometimes weighing heavily against the former. As a result, more large, cross-border mergers are being scrutinised, delayed or thwarted by reviews that are progressively broad in scope.

Originally published by Law Business Research Ltd. in The Foreign Investment Regulation Review.