Policy-driven enforcement is redefining global antitrust - your guide to understanding and managing this dynamic environment in 2026.
Global antitrust enters a new phase in 2026. What began as a recalibration in 2025 has accelerated into a more overtly policy-driven enforcement landscape, with direct consequences for how businesses plan, transact and invest.
Clarity in antitrust distills this shift into 10 themes shaping competition law in the year ahead. We examine how antitrust and foreign investment regimes are increasingly deployed as instruments of industrial policy and geopolitical strategy – reframing dealmaking, enforcement priorities and compliance expectations across jurisdictions.
The lines between competition law and broader state objectives have blurred further. National security, economic resilience and technological competitiveness now sit alongside consumer welfare and market efficiency. Regulators are stretching traditional frameworks, expanding jurisdictional triggers and testing remedies and procedures in pursuit of wider strategic goals.
For businesses, the implications are immediate. Dealmakers must anticipate how policy priorities will shape merger review and foreign investment scrutiny. New enforcement battlegrounds are emerging, from labor markets to innovation-intensive sectors. At the same time, procedural compliance has become a strategic imperative, as agencies wield enhanced investigative powers and private litigation grows more coordinated and technologically sophisticated.
This is the enforcement landscape businesses face in 2026. Clarity in antitrust provides a structured lens on where pressure is intensifying, where discretion remains and how early, informed strategy can still influence outcomes in a more politicized system.
2026 in focus
A snapshot of the forces influencing antitrust risk, deal scrutiny and enforcement in 2026.
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