Be prepared for a more proactive competition regime that casts a wider jurisdictional net for the CMA, backed up with new and stronger enforcement tools, as well as higher penalties for non-compliance. Expansion of the CMA’s merger review thresholds further strengthens the CMA’s ability to intervene in global deals. Faster and more flexible market inquiry powers could signal a ramp up in CMA market inquiries and the threat of higher, turnover based, sanctions for failures to comply with investigatory measures means businesses should revisit their internal processes now to ensure they stay the right side of the line.
*The competition (including mergers) parts of the DMCC Act came into force on 1 January 2025. The CMA has published updated guidance for merger reviews, and is currently reviewing responses to its consultation on draft markets guidance, which closed on 3 December 2024.
Our experience
- advising clients from a diverse range of sectors in complex and challenging merger control cases before the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and other leading antitrust authorities. We have a proven track record of delivering results for clients facing the most complex reviews, and particularly those which require a co-ordinated global merger control strategy
- advising clients across a range of sectors in connection with market inquiries before the CMA, as well as other antitrust authorities globally. We have been involved in 7 out of the 11 most recent UK market studies and market investigations opened by the CMA
- Advising Gridserve on the CMA's Competition Act 1998 investigation relating to long-term exclusivity in the supply of electric vehicle chargepoints on or near motorways including the negotiation of commitments with the CMA
- advising BT Group on an investigation by the CMA into BT Sport which was, until September 2022, wholly owned by BT, and has since been rebranded as TNT Sport, following the sale of BT Sport to Warner Bros. Discovery
- advising Mastercard in the first major – and still by far the largest – opt-out competition class action pursuant to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the CRA 2015). The claim was brought in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) as a follow-on claim from a European Commission Decision in 2007 on behalf of a class of over 46 million UK consumers who bought goods and services from UK merchants that accepted Mastercard payment cards between 1992 and 2008
