The U.K. competition authority structure is undergoing remodeling and we have several experts weighing in to take questions: How is the new organization going to react with other U.K. authorities? How best to integrate two different approaches to decision making? Should merger notification still be voluntary? What are the appropriate safeguards to ensure impartial decisions? […]

Bruce Lyons, May 14, 2012 I focus in this paper on institutional change and decision making in the new CMA. There are also other important changes to U.K. competition law, including the removal of “dishonesty” as a requirement for the criminal offense in cartels-it will be replaced by appropriate publication of detailed arrangements as a […]

Valentine Korah, Despoina Mantzari, May 14, 2012 The focus on good institutional design, as an important component of strong competition policy and enforcement, has become a priority of antitrust agencies around the globe. Both the “external design” of the agency, i.e. the place the authority occupies in the administrative structure of a state and the […]

Renato Nazzini, May 14, 2012 In March 2012, the U.K. Government published its Response to a consultation on options for reform of the competition regime issued one year earlier, on March 16, 2011. The Foreword to the Response presents the proposed changes as “far-reaching reforms, aiming at creating a competition regime that delivers better outcomes for business, […]

Ruchit Patel, May 14, 2012 In March 2011, the U.K. Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (“BIS”) consulted upon proposed reforms to the U.K. competition regime. The reforms proposed in the Consultation generated a great deal of interest primarily because certain of them had the potential to represent a step change in the regime (e.g., […]

Anna Mitchell, Paula Riedel, May 14, 2012 Since October 2010, it has, in essence, been a certainty that a merger between the OFT and the CC would go ahead, notwithstanding the fact that they are both relatively small, low-turnover agencies, and the obvious cost savings arising out of a merger between them are not immediately […]

Stephen Houck, May 14, 2012 In the wake of the U.S. government’s unsuccessful prosecution of IBM (begun in 1969 and dropped in 1982), many knowledgeable observers believed that of the Sherman Act was no longer relevant and was too cumbersome to apply to fast-moving high-tech companies. The government’s prosecution of Microsoft, settled in 2001, proved […]