In its updated guidance, the CMA has: ICE/Trayport competition’ (SLC) test against which the CMA assesses whether a merger raises competition concerns. The initiative also is part of a wider set of measures seeking to promote competition in digital markets in the U.K., including the recently launched consultation on revised merger assessment guidelines codifying the CMA’s evolving practice in the digital sector and addressing recommendations made by the Furman and Lear reports. (f) CMA Merger Assessment Guidelines, paragraph 5.6.6. The CMA’s goal is to protect consumers through its merger work and help companies and their advisers assess whether competition concerns might be raised in given circumstances. The CMA’s approach, set out in its revised Merger Assessment Guidelines (MAGs), is now critical to deal execution in a greater number of cases, particularly where it could diverge from the approach taken by other authorities. The CMA needs to evolve and adapt its approach to the assessment of mergers in digital and other new markets to ensure that it is delivering on its duties to promote competition for the benefit of UK consumers. Summary. (g) Tobii/Smartbox Final Report, paragraphs 7.11 to 7.19. This guidance also does not explain the CMA’s approach CMA Issues New Guidance on Merger Assessment During COVID-19 Pandemic By Latham & Watkins LLP on April 28, 2020 Posted in EU and Competition. 1 The guidelines largely codify the CMA’s recent output, which includes record high numbers of prohibitions and deal abandonments.. In March 2021, the UK competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), published its revised merger assessment guidelines (the "Revised Guidelines"), which are the framework the CMA uses to assess mergers. Merger Assessment” on the CMA’s consultation on the draft merger assessment guidelines. The guidelines update the current merger assessment guidelines (CC2/OFT1254), which date back to 2010, in order to reflect developments in the Authority’s approach to merger … The guidelines are built on recommendations made by the Furman’s Unlocking digital competition: Report from the Digital Competition Expert Panel and Lear’s Ex-post Assessment of Merger Control Decisions in Digital Markets reports, in 2019, on how the CMA should approach its assessment of digital mergers. The guidelines downplay the importance of traditional market definition … The U.K.’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has released new merger assessment guidelines that confirm the U.K. regulator’s intensified approach to merger control. The Revised Guidelines come at a time when the CMA is taking over review of large UK mergers that were … 2 See our April 8, 2021, client alert “New EU Guidance Creates Legal Uncertainty for Merger Control and a De Facto ‘Killer Acquisition’ Review Power” on the new Article 22 EU Merger Regulation Guidance. Whilst this is an ongoing process, the revised guidelines give the us the opportunity to set out in writing the current approach to the assessment of mergers. The CMA’s Merger Assessment Guidelines themselves state that ‘it is a well-established principle that most [non-horizontal mergers] are benign and do not raise competition concerns’ (paragraph 5.6.1). Detailed information on the application of the substantive test for mergers is provided in Merger Assessment Guidelines (OFT1254/CC2). Home > EU and Competition > CMA Issues New Guidance on Merger Assessment During COVID-19 Pandemic. It is the first update in more than a decade. The guidance includes a refresher on “failing firm” defence claims, for which the CMA will maintain a high bar.