United Kingdom

Energy Policy, Euratom Treaty, European Court of Justice, Nuclear Energy, State aid, Sustainability, United Kingdom

(Greenberg Traurig Germany LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Months before the prospective final Brexit, the ECJ laid what is in all likelihood the last State aid milestone on the UK’s path out of the European Union – at the same time, the ECJ’s judgment in the „Hinkley Point C“ case (Case C-594/18 P Austria v Commission) is a farewell gift to the remaining…

Competition and Markets Authority, COVID-19, Sustainability, United Kingdom

(Competition Appeal Tribunal)/ /1 Comment

The Coronavirus crisis has shown how governments and competition authorities around the world have been able and willing to act in a crisis-and the UK government and the CMA have been no exception. If we can do this to fight one (hopefully, short-term) crisis why can’t we show the same resolve in the face of…

Abuse of dominance, Excessive pricing, United Kingdom

, (White & Case)/ /Leave a comment

Summary On 10 March 2020 the Court of Appeal upheld the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s (CAT) quashing of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA)  decision that Pfizer and Flynn Pharma (Flynn) had abused their dominant positions in the market by pricing their epilepsy drug unfairly. Among other aspects, the Court of Appeal broadly upheld the CAT’s…

Brexit, European Union, United Kingdom

(Pinsent Masons)/ /Leave a comment

Whilst the EU-UK trade negotiations have barely commenced, one thing is already quite clear: the two sides are poles apart on the key issue of level playing field (LPF) provisions and the extent to which these should feature in a future EU-UK free trade agreement.  The aim of these provisions, as originally set out in…

Antitrust, Brexit, Merger control, United Kingdom

(Baker & McKenzie LLP)/ /Leave a comment

As you are aware, the UK will be leaving the EU this Friday 31 January (Exit Day). The CMA has published guidance on how Brexit affects the CMA’s powers and processes for antitrust enforcement and merger control during the Transition Period, towards the end of that period, and after it ends. The guidance also explains…

Abuse of dominance, Postal services, United Kingdom

, , , (Latham & Watkins LLP)/ /Leave a comment

UK Competition Appeal Tribunal Judgment: Pushing the Envelope on Abuse of Dominance The CAT’s Royal Mail v Ofcom judgment considers what constitutes abusive conduct, the “as-efficient competitor” test, and the use of expert economic advice.   On 12 November 2019, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (the CAT) published its judgment rejecting Royal Mail’s appeal against…

Merger control, United Kingdom

(Kirkland & Ellis)/ /Leave a comment

In his letter to Government[1] from February this year, the Chairman of the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) proposed the introduction of a mandatory and suspensory notification regime in the UK for “larger mergers”. The adoption of this proposal would result in the creation of a hybrid regime in the UK, with the notification…

Australia, Gun jumping, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Voluntary merger regimes

(Kirkland & Ellis LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Much has been written of the heightened risk of gun-jumping enforcement by competition regulators overseeing mandatory suspensory merger regimes.  This article will examine why merger parties and their advisers must also be alive to ‘gun-jumping’ risks in jurisdictions where pre-merger notification is voluntary and there are no automatic standstill obligations. Alongside the succession of ‘gun-jumping’…

Brexit, European Union, State aid, United Kingdom

(Pinsent Masons)/ /Leave a comment

At the time of writing, there is still a lot of uncertainty as regards the question of whether the United Kingdom will leave the European Union with an exit deal on 31 October 2019.  However, what is clear is that State aid regulation will continue in the UK irrespective of the way in which the…

Damages, Economics, United Kingdom

(Allegro Consulting)/ /Leave a comment

The England and Wales Court of Appeal has overturned the Decision of the United Kingdom Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) in the collective proceedings Walter Merricks v MasterCard, where final consumers are represented by Merricks. This is an important decision because it ensures that financial damages are recoverable when a firm’s anti-competitive practices affect millions of…