Work Area: Merger Control

IQVIA’s purchase of Propel Media could cause both horizontal and vertical harm in the market for digital healthcare advertising worldwide, the Federal Trade Commission has said, as it filed an administrative complaint to block the deal.

18 July 2023

The UK’s specialist competition tribunal has agreed to pause Microsoft’s appeal against the decision blocking its acquisition of Activision Blizzard after the merging parties revealed their plans to file a restructured deal to the country’s antitrust authority.

17 July 2023

Israeli footwear company WeShoes has agreed to pay €1.3 million and refrain from influencing resale prices for certain brands to avoid a hefty fine for gun jumping, resale price maintenance and failing to comply with information requests.

17 July 2023

Ireland’s competition authority has approved a waste collection business’s acquisition of a rival, after accepting a proposal to divest nearly 8,000 residential customers in areas serviced by both companies.

14 July 2023

A federal judge in Delaware was correct in concluding that the Department of Justice improperly excluded distributors when challenging a merger of sugar refiners, but the lower court should not have credited the ability of the US agriculture regulator to control prices, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled.

14 July 2023

The European Commission has secured a major reprieve from the EU’s top court after the latter set aside a landmark judgment overturning the enforcer’s prohibition of a tie-up between CK Hutchison and Telefónica’s UK subsidiaries.

13 July 2023

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has opened an in-depth review into Adobe’s $20 billion acquisition of web design platform Figma after the companies refused to offer remedies.

13 July 2023

Microsoft has been given a route to fight the UK block of its planned $69 billion acquisition of Activision after the Competition and Markets Authority yesterday said it will consider a “restructured” version of the deal.

13 July 2023

Hungary’s decision to block an EU company from acquiring a strategically important domestic raw materials supplier under its foreign investment rules was a “particularly serious restriction” of EU law as it only sought to protect the national economy, the bloc’s top court has said.

13 July 2023

The Federal Trade Commission is fighting back against its failed attempt to halt Microsoft/Activision, though some practitioners say the lopsided loss highlights the pitfalls of the Biden Administration’s stance on mergers.

13 July 2023