A 'relevant merger situation' under UK merger rules

Published by a ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû Competition expert
Practice notes

A 'relevant merger situation' under UK merger rules

Published by a ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû Competition expert

Practice notes
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The Merger control Rules of the UK are contained in the Enterprise Act 2002, as amended by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA 2024). Under the UK merger control rules, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has jurisdiction to review both completed and anticipated merger transactions provided there is a ‘Relevant merger situation’.

Three conditions must be met for a ‘relevant merger situation’ to exist:

  1. •

    two or more enterprises (or businesses) must ‘cease to be distinct’, and

  2. •

    the target's size or the merger's impact on competition is large enough to meet one of the jurisdictional threshold tests, and

  3. •

    the merger is within the time limit for review.

For information on the CMA's investigation process, see The UK merger investigation process. For details of ongoing UK merger investigations, see UK mergers–case tracker.

DMCCA 2024

On 3 June 2024, the DMCCA 2024 was published, following Royal Assent given on 24 May 2024. In relation to merger control, the DMCCA 2024:

  1. •

    establishes

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Key definition:
Relevant merger situation definition
What does Relevant merger situation mean?

The UK Office of Fair Trading and UK Competition Commission only have jurisdiction to review mergers that create, or may be expected to create a 'relevant merger situation'. If the EU Commission is reviewing a proposed merger (concentration), the UK competition authorities have no competence to review the merger.

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