Government closes enforcement gap in pre-Brexit merger and antitrust cases
On 10 September the government published the Competition (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) (No 2) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/1245), together with an explanatory memorandum.
The Regulations address a no-deal scenario and UK-related commitments made to the European Commission under EU merger control and antitrust. The Regulations ensure commitments made prior to exit day relating to the supply or acquisition of goods or services in the UK are preserved as retained EU law. The Regulations grant UK competition authorities the power to monitor and enforce the commitments made under these decisions.
The Regulations specify commitments made under 31 merger clearances and 12 EU antitrust cases going back to 2012. These include historic multi-jurisdictional transactions such as Universal Music Group/EMI Music, Glencore/Xstrata, Takeda/Shire, and Microsoft/LinkedIn. It was “previously thought” the European Commission would continue to monitor and enforce UK-related merger and antitrust commitments that were given pre-Brexit.
The Regulations are part of approximately 540 statutory instruments made in anticipation of Brexit since July 2018.
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