Concurrences

Estimated reading time: 5 min On 2 July 2026, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (the "KKV") closed its investigation into the organisation of Finland’s top ice hockey division, the SM-liiga, following a complaint by the players’ union that the league had operated as a closed competition since 2000.

Estimated reading time: 1 min On 25 June 2026, the European Commission ("Commission") published its evaluation of the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation ("MVBER"), which is set to expire in May 2028, and its Supplementary Guidelines.

Call-In Mechanisms and Legal Certainty: The ECN Joint Statement of 23 June 2026 as a Tacit Endorsement* On 23 June 2026, the European Competition Network ("ECN") [1] published a Joint Statement setting out common principles for the implementation of merger call-in mechanisms across the EEA. [2] Carefully framed as neither a mandate nor a blueprint, the document nonetheless constitutes a powerful signal in favour of this sub-threshold review instrument, and, less visibly, a warning to all ma...

Estimated reading time: 4 min The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly released their Hart-Scott-Rodino Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2025 — the forty-eighth annual report to Congress on the operation of the premerger notification program established by Section 7A of the Clayton Act.

Estimated reading time: 4 min On 23 June 2026, the European Competition Network ("ECN") endorsed merger call-in mechanisms as an effective tool for reviewing below-threshold deals, reflecting growing alignment among ECN competition authorities.

Estimated reading time: 4 min On 2 July 2026, the Subsidy Advice Unit (the SAU) of the UK Competition and Markets Authority published its report on a proposed subsidy of up to £43.3 million to Athletic Ventures LLP for the delivery of the World Athletics Championships 2029 in London.

Previous article Next article Share on | Estimated reading time: 14 min This essay traces the historical links between U.S. antitrust law and modern Catholic social teaching, from their nineteenth-century roots to the rise of artificial intelligence. It examines how both traditions arose out of threats to the social and economic order as industrialization rapidly expanded in the U.S. and parts of Europe in the late nineteenth century.

Previous article Next article Share on | Estimated reading time: 26 min The Digital Markets Act (DMA) puts interoperability obligations at the heart of the EU’s strategy to promote contestability and fairness in digital platform markets. However, achieving effective interoperability has proven far more difficult in practice than the DMA’s legislative ambition suggested. This article provides a first analysis of the Commission’s enforcement record under the DMA’s interoperability framework.

Previous article Next article Share on | Estimated reading time: 10 min The European Commission has published its first review of the DMA. This article argues that the review is not yet a comprehensive impact evaluation as it does not provide meaningful evidence as to whether the overall goals of the DMA are being effectively or efficiently achieved. This is to an extent understandable given the early stage of DMA implementation.

Previous article Next article Share on | Estimated reading time: 4 min The European Commission unveiled its draft Merger Guidelines on 30 April 2026 (Draft Communication from the Commission, Guidelines on the assessment of mergers under Council Regulation (EC) No. 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (“draft Merger Guidelines”)). This was an eagerly awaited moment, given the intensity of the debates surrounding the evolution of merger review in Europe.