Competition Law International (CLI)

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In June 2022, China’s antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) – started a pilot project establishing the alert mechanism for compliance risks for concentrations of undertakings. Relying on the corporate registration system, this mechanism aims to remind companies to assess whether a filing obligation is triggered under merger control rules. As such, it reduces the risk of failure to file reportable transactions and promotes fair market competition.

After over a year of trial runs, the mechanism was fully set up and launched online. In February 2024, SAMR issued a notice to expand on the scenarios for the alerts, increase the accuracy of the alerts, and enhance related advocacy.

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Litigation funding has flourished in the UK in the last 20 years. It is now a central pillar of access to justice, especially in supporting group actions that frequently could not be pursued without third party funding. A 2023 judgment by the UK’s Supreme Court – R (PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others (PACCAR) – and its subsequent judicial treatment has highlighted litigation funding’s importance to the litigation landscape in the UK. This article analyses the PACCAR judgment in the context of the development of the litigation funding market in the UK, and assesses how the courts and government are responding to its consequences.

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In this article, the authors trace the history, evolution and latest developments of the antitrust laws’ application to labour markets in the United States. Then, they describe common types of claims in labour markets cases, before analysing recent criminal and civil wage-fixing, no poach, and merger challenges. The authors conclude by providing actions companies should consider taking, as they seek to avoid finding themselves as a defendant in an antitrust–labour markets case.

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European antitrust policy faces three critical stress tests as the new European Commission (2024–29) takes office. The first test challenges the EU’s Article 22 referral policy, which allows the Commission to review global mergers, raising concerns about extraterritoriality and legal principles. Predicted to fail, this test questions the Brussels Effect’s sustainability. The second test examines the Digital Markets Act’s (DMA) aim for regulatory dialogue over litigation in digital competition. Early investigations against major tech firms suggest a litigation-driven enforcement, risking the DMA’s intended regulatory approach. The third test evaluates artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, balancing competition and innovation. Success is possible if the EU adopts a practical, rational approach, recognising AI’s complex layers and promoting competition across the entire AI infrastructure. These stress tests present significant challenges and necessitate strategic responses to ensure robust and effective antitrust policies in Europe.

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Microsoft’s retention of the employees of Inflection AI has surfaced a debate on whether employee acquisitions represent an enforcement gap in European merger control laws. Leaving aside whether there exists robust data that could confirm the magnitude of any gap, do the jurisdictional rules of the EU Merger Regulation and the Enterprise Act permit the review of employee acquisitions (or ‘acquihires’)? This article shows that those laws could be invoked in exceptional situations, notably where the ‘acquihire’ has structural components and eliminates competition from the prior employer.

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Two recent merger decisions in South Africa seem to have ‘broken’ one of the fundamental rules of merger control. A merger-specific price increase was certain in both cases, but, equally so, neither merger changed pre-merger market structure or competitive constraints. South Africa now has two decisions saying a merger can substantially lessen or prevent competition even if it does not affect pre-merger competitive constraints. It is difficult to predict the impacts of these decisions.

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• Volume 19 Number 2, November 2023
• Volume 19 Number 1, June 2023
• Volume 18 Number 2, November 2022
• Volume 18 Number 1, June 2022
• Volume 17 Number 2, December 2021
• Volume 17 Number 1, June 2021
• Volume 16 Number 2, December 2020
• Volume 16 Number 1, October 2020
• Volume 15 Number 2, December 2019
• Volume 15 Number 1, May 2019