2024 is shaping up to be a year of significant change in Brussels. European Parliamentary elections in June will be followed by the appointment of a new Commission in the autumn. After two terms and 10 years at the helm of EU competition policy (which is unprecedented in recent times), Margrethe Vestager is likely to move on from her post as the bloc’s top antitrust enforcer – and her replacement will likely bring a new enforcement agenda. This article explores the top current trends and developments affecting M&A regulation in Europe, focusing on the continued targeting of “below threshold” deals via Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (“EUMR”), the rise of the new ecosystems theory of harm, the role of the Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) and Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”) screening regimes and sustainability as a factor in the substantive assessment of mergers – all set against the backdrop of the incoming new Commission that will drive EU competition policy until 2029.

The EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) entered into force on 12 July 2023. Its M&A and public procurement notification regimes will go live on 12 October 2023. On 10 July 2023, the European Commission (Commission) adopted its final version of the FSR’s Implementing Regulation alongside the template notification forms. This gives further information on how the FSR regime works in practice, and specifies the information that must be included for mandatory M&A and public procurement notifications. We have written previously about the FSR regime at the beginning of 2023. This article looks at the new FSR regime, and what this means in practice for those doing business within the EU.

As we reported previously, on 25 April this year the UK Government introduced the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers  Bill (“DMCC Bill”). Many of the headlines about the DMCC Bill have understandably related to the new regulatory regime for digital markets and companies with “strategic market status”, and there are also changes proposed to the UK’s consumer protection laws. However, the DMCC Bill will also make a number of other fundamental changes to the UK’s competition law regime – including in relation to merger control, the territorial reach of UK competition law and public enforcement.  This article focuses on the aspects of the DMCC Bill that impact the UK’s existing merger control and competition law enforcement framework, and considers how these changes may impact businesses operating across the UK.