UK to Study Brexit’s Impact on Competition Law

Posted by Lexology

UK to Study Brexit’s Impact on Competition Law

Currently, responsibility to apply and enforce the EU rules on antitrust and merger control is shared by the European Commission and the national competition authorities of the EU member states (NCAs), facilitated by cooperation agreements and the European Competition Network, which brings together the European Commission and the NCAs.

The UK’s domestic rules on antitrust and merger control are, to some extent, modelled on the EU rules and are to be interpreted consistently with EU law and judgments of the EU courts. State aid rules are exclusively governed by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and controlled by the European Commission, and there is no domestic equivalent in the UK.

Upon the UK leaving the EU, this model — based on the supremacy of EU legislation over UK legislation and cooperation between the European Commission and the UK competition authorities — will cease unless some interim or other trade arrangement perpetuates it. Subject to that caveat, EU law will cease to apply to the UK, although the EU rules will continue to apply to UK businesses whose activities have an effect on trade between the EU member states. UK domestic law will apply, in parallel, where other member states are affected, to transactions, practices and conduct that have an effect in the UK.

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