Background and context Following its inquiry into the live music industry, the Commons Business and Trade Committee has issued a report calling on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to launch a full market investigation before the end of 2026. The Committee concludes that Live Nation “and other vertically integrated companies” are harming competition across the supply chain. It points […]
What changed on 30 April 2026? The draft merger guidelines consolidate the 2004 horizontal and 2008 non-horizontal guidelines into a single text and reframe EU merger control as a tool that should contribute to the EU’s wider competitiveness agenda. They are not new legislation – they explain how the Commission interprets and applies the existing […]
The UK Government has committed to leverage the power of data to support economic growth. The Industrial Strategy set out the ambition to capitalise on the value of UK data, treating it as an economic asset. The recent adoption of the Data (Use and Access) Act has now enabled the implementation of this ambition, establishing the […]
The CMA’s new consumer powers are here, with the ability to fine businesses up to 10% of global turnover for breaches.
In our latest blog, "Navigating the CMA’s New, Stronger, Consumer Powers", our experts Karla Perca López, Nick Seaford and Tom Bibby break down what this means for businesses.
In our latest blog, Flint experts Lisa Keuper and Lisa Ross explore how the securitisation landscape is evolving across two very different financial regions: APAC and the European Union. While the EU cautiously navigates regulatory frameworks with a focus on financial stability, markets across APAC show a more dynamic, albeit measured, approach to growth.
“Acqui-hires” – where firms hire multiple employees from the same firm or acquire companies with the primary aim of hiring their employees – are back in the headlines, particularly in the tech sector. Competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are watching closely. In our latest blog post, Kah Loon Tham, Karla Perca Lopez and Stephen Kinsella discuss the role of competition law in relation to acqui-hires, the tools available to competition authorities and policy-makers, and the implications for businesses.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) approval of the Vodafone/Three merger has been widely interpreted as a significant change in its approach to merger control, signalling a greater openness to behavioural remedies. Our view is that this is a less dramatic shift. We set out why the specific circumstances of the merger and the […]
Ofcom and DSIT are currently engaged in a back-and-forth exchange about categorising which companies will be caught by the additional duties of the Online Safety Act. Naturally there has been a lot of focus on the biggest and most well-known social media platforms operating in the UK. But alongside this, real regulatory concern is emerging […]
Overview The UK’s new post-Brexit subsidy control regime sits against a backdrop of governments across developed economies pursuing more active industrial policy. The UK’s trade partners, most notably the EU, are watching its subsidy regime and decisions closely. There is significant domestic scrutiny too. Those responsible for scrutinising public spending, such as the National Audit […]
Many of these challenges reflect recurring flaws in regulatory frameworks, examined in Common problems with regulation in competitive markets. For insight into how regulatory scrutiny and intervention can reshape investment and engagement strategies, see In pursuit of a more growth-friendly regulatory landscape. Supporting economic growth Economic growth has been in short supply in the UK […]
Common Problems with Regulation in Competitive Markets
I joined the distinguished line-up at the Regulatory Policy Institute’s summer conference on Diagnosing Regulatory Pathologies. Other speakers discussed problems with monopoly infrastructure regulation. I focussed on what goes wrong in regulation of competitive markets… Competitive markets are great at discovering what customers want and getting it to them. Market forces discover not only the […]
Recent discussions in Europe about how to meet 5G targets have focused on whether Tech players should contribute to network investment, with some suggestion this could present an alternative to consolidation in the sector. But incentives for investment are not just a question of revenues. Where there are synergies in network deployment, allowing mobile mergers […]
