The United Kingdom’s competition regulator is responding to pressure from the government and imposing fewer conditions on proposed mergers, McGuireWoods London partner Matthew Hall said in a recently published LexisNexis report.
The report analyzed data from parallel merger investigations carried out by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission since the end of the Brexit transition period on Dec. 31, 2020. It found that most parallel cases have led to consistent outcomes between the CMA and European Commission.
Over 40% of mergers reviewed by the CMA were approved unconditionally at the earliest phase. Hall said this was interesting given that the UK’s regime is, in theory voluntary.
“This suggests that buyers were taking a conservative approach in many cases and filing even when there did not appear to be any real substantive issues and/or that the CMA was requiring filings in such cases,” Hall said. “This is perhaps unsurprising given the reputation of the CMA as a difficult merger control regulator with expansive jurisdiction and wanting to impose itself post-Brexit.”