Agenda for CMA Discussion on Improving Merger Reviews

The CLLS Competition Committee welcomes the CMA’s recent reviews of the UK merger regime. Many aspects of the regime work well: we are seeing improvement in client reaction to the reformed Phase II process; and the MIC process works well in many cases to deliver very rapid outcomes for business.

The purpose of this short paper is to set out the more operational areas of the regime which, as practitioners and users of the system, we consider could be modified or improved, without requiring legislative reform and which would enhance delivery of the “4Ps”.