Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter which explores recent competition law developments across the UK and EU.
In this edition, we examine recent decisions from the Competition Appeal Tribunal, namely its judgment in the first trial under the UK's collective actions regime, and its approval of further settlements of collective actions. We also take a look at the UK's concurrency regime for competition law enforcement and consider whether it remains fit for purpose.
On the mergers side, we review the recent decision in Vodafone/Three – in which the CMA, unusually, accepted behavioural remedies – and consider whether, at a time when the CMA is being pushed by the Government to support its growth agenda, this signifies a broader shift in the CMA's approach. And with the UK's new digital markets competition regime having entered into force (and the first two sets of investigations already having been announced), we examine the CMA's likely approach to deploying its new powers.
Finally, for those who may have missed last month's circular, we include our roundup of the competition law developments to look out for in 2025, in both the EU and UK.
Navigating unfair pricing claims: key insights from the Le Patourel judgment
Class representative Justin Le Patourel took on a complicated area of competition law when bringing his case against telecoms giant BT. In its judgment following the first trial under the UK's collective action regime, the Competition Appeal Tribunal had to grapple with the law on unfair pricing – ultimately finding against the class representative.
Time to get digital: CMA sets out its stall as the UK's digital markets regime goes online
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into force at the start of the year, giving the CMA greater powers to regulate digital markets in the UK. The CMA has wasted no time in getting investigations under way to designate firms as having "Strategic Market Status" (SMS), and we are bound to see more investigations as 2025 progresses*.
A decade of enhanced concurrent competition enforcement: room for improvement?
The UK's competition concurrency arrangements allow sectoral regulators to share certain competition enforcement powers with the CMA. The CMA recently published a report considering the efficacy of these arrangements, and outlining possible areas for improvement.
Settling the seas: Tribunal approves further collective settlements in RoRo shipping class action
Towards the end of 2024, the Tribunal approved further collective settlements in the "roll-on, roll-off" car shipping collective action brought by Mark McLaren. This allowed two further defendant groups to avoid participating in the trial of these proceedings, which commenced on 13 January 2025.
Three is the magic number: CMA approves Vodafone/Three merger
Following a Phase 2 review, the CMA accepted behavioural remedies to clear this telecoms merger. Despite having taken a different approach in previous cases in this sector, the CMA ultimately determined that the package offered by the parties was sufficient to address the substantial lessening of competition that it found would result from the merger.
UK and EU Competition Law and Policy: what to look out for in 2025
Finally, we take a look at the key developments that are likely to lie ahead for 2025, including the enforcement of digital markets regulations in the UK and EU, possible areas of increased antitrust enforcement, and new approaches being taken to merger reviews by both the CMA and the European Commission*.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
