Competition Law and Antitrust Law

The UK Competition and Markets Authority has exercised its new consumer enforcement fining powers for the first time under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, targeting AA and BSM Driving Schools for unlawful drip pricing practices. This landmark case reveals the CMA's five-step penalty framework and highlights critical distinctions between consumer and competition law fines that will shape enforcement strategies across UK markets.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has dramatically accelerated its consumer protection enforcement since acquiring new powers in April 2025, opening 19 investigations in just over a year...

The Competition and Markets Authority has wielded its new consumer enforcement powers for over a year, imposing millions in fines and redress orders while deploying AI monitoring and advisory letters to target businesses across multiple sectors. From misleading pricing to unfair contract terms, the CMA's expanding enforcement strategy reveals critical compliance risks that consumer-facing businesses can no longer afford to ignore.

Ofcom are revising the guidance on their enforcement of the prohibition on anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance under the Competition Act 1998 (CA98), which they enforce concurrently with the Competition...

Competition law affects every business, regardless of size or sector. Whether you’re negotiating with suppliers, submitting tenders or discussing pricing strategies, the rules governing anti-competitive behaviour are always in play. Getting it wrong can result in significant fines, director disqualification and even criminal prosecution.

This newsletter examines pivotal competition law developments across the UK and EU, including the CJEU's landmark €4.125bn fine against Google for Android-related abuses, the UK Court of Appeal's significant ruling on distribution system restrictions, and the implications of Andy Burnham's premiership for UK competition policy.

The Financial Conduct Authority has long held concurrent competition law enforcement powers alongside the Competition and Markets Authority, yet has rarely exercised them in practice. A recent case involving 11 commodity futures traders signals a potential shift in the FCA's approach to competition enforcement in financial services, raising important questions about compliance obligations for self-employed individuals and the firms that engage them.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has approved its second-ever distribution plan for collective proceedings, providing detailed guidance on how settlement funds from the RoRo shipping cartel case will be distributed to approximately 25 million affected vehicle purchasers and lessees. This landmark approval offers crucial insights into the Tribunal's expectations for future class action distributions, addressing key lessons learned from the disappointing 1% take-up rate in the earlier Boundary Fares case.

Notwithstanding the change in Prime Minister in July 2026—with Andy Burnham becoming the seventh person to hold the office in a decade—there is, at least for now, little indication that the UK’s recalibrated approach to merger control and investment screening is set for a comparable shake-up in the short-term, at least.