On 8 August 2022 the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) set aside the CMA’s infringement decision in its Compare The Market investigation relating to the use of wide MFN clauses.  The CAT concluded that the CMA’s definition of the relevant market in the decision was materially wrong and that the CMA had failed to show, to … Read more

The sixth edition of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Asia-Pacific Competition Law Guide is now available, which provides a comprehensive overview of common antitrust-related issues across the region, including: antitrust risks in horizontal cooperation agreements and vertical supply arrangements; actions that can be taken if a potential competition infringement is detected; potential penalties for competition infringements; the … Read more

Hot on the heels of the passing of the amendments to China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (Amended AML) last Friday (24 June 2022), China’s competition regulator (the State Administration for Market Regulation, or SAMR) has launched a public consultation on 27 June 2022 in relation to amendments to six substantive regulations.  The proposed amendments are wide ranging, … Read more

We are delighted that our overviews of regulatory and competition law in the EU and South Africa have now been published as jurisdictional contributions to the Lexology Getting the Deal Through Pharmaceutical Antitrust guide. The online publication serves as a quick reference guide enabling side-by-side comparison of local insights into pharmaceutical regulatory law (framework, authorities, … Read more

On 24 June 2022, the 35th session of the 13th National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed the Decision to Amend the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML“). This is the first major legislative update of China’s competition law since it was first introduced in 2008, with the amended version of the AML (“Amended AML“) due to come into force … Read more

On 7 June 2022, the CMA issued a statement of objections (SO) concerning alleged horizontal and vertical price fixing in relation to certain Rangers FC-branded clothing products by Elite Sports, JD Sports and Rangers FC between September 2018 and July 2019. In this period, Elite both manufactured the Rangers-branded clothing and retailed it through its … Read more

Following a comprehensive review and consultation process, the new revised EU vertical agreements block exemption Regulation (VBER) and Guidelines have now been published and will come into force on 1 June 2022.  The Commission’s stated objectives of the review process were to adjust the safe harbour under the VBER to eliminate false positives (where the … Read more

On 6 May 2022 the UK government published its response to the July 2021 consultation on a new pro-competition regime for digital markets (see our blog post here), setting out its proposals for the design of a new regime to proactively shape the behaviour of the most powerful technology firms with strategic market status. The … Read more