The European Commission (EC) has published a draft of its long-awaited revision of the Merger Guidelines (Draft Guidelines), combining the 2004 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and 2008 Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines into a single document that is organized around different theories of harm and endeavors to achieve five principal objectives: (1) to take account of the Draghi
In the latest episode of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the EC’s draft Merger Guidelines. Sir Philip Lowe, Sir Jonathan Faull, Barbara Moens, Jorge Padilla, Ethel Fonseca, Kirsten Edwards-Warren, Enrique González-Díaz, Anita Magraner Oliver, and Chris Cook discuss a wide array of topics,
On May 5, 2026, the European Commission (the Commission) published its 2025 Report on Competition Policy (the Report). The Report highlights initiatives undertaken during Commissioner Ribera’s first year in office and provides an indication of the direction of enforcement in the coming years. Six takeaways may be identified:
In the latest instalment of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy is joined by Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the Competition and Markets Authority. Their conversation covers a wide array of topics, including the objectives of competition law, the UK Government’s strategic steer, merger control, antitrust enforcement, consumer protection, digital regulation, and much
Principal Changes and Implications
The European Commission today published a draft of its long-awaited revision of the Merger Guidelines, combining the 2004 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the 2008 Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines into a single document that takes account of the Draghi Report’s call for more dynamic, forward-looking merger control, acknowledges the benefits of scale, resilience,
In the latest episode of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy is joined by Gail Slater, former Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. Their conversation covers a wide array of topics, including the objectives of antitrust law, the conservative case for vigorous antitrust enforcement, merger control, political lobbying,
DG COMP has a new Director-General – Anthony Whelan, a long-serving European Commission official who has been at the heart of EU regulation and competition law for over 30 years. Currently DG COMP’s Deputy Director-General for State aid, he has held a wide range of roles over his career: he has worked in the Commission
In the latest episode of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy is joined by Bjarne Tellmann, CEO of FjordStream Advisors and author of Law in the Era of AI: Clients, Firms, and the Future of the Legal Industry. Their conversation covers a wide array of topics, including innovation and digital transformation in the
In this instalment of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy is joined by Mike Walker, the CMA’s former Chief Economist. Their conversation covers a wide array of topics, including Mike’s 30-year career, his decade at the CMA, the evolution of economics and economists in EU and UK antitrust enforcement, merger control, digital regulation,
In the latest instalment of Cleary Gottlieb’s Antitrust Review podcast, host Nick Levy is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the first year of Teresa Ribera’s term as EU Competition Commissioner: Peter Guilford of Shearwater, Barbara Moens of the Financial Times, Lewis Crofts of MLex, and Javier Espinoza of Capitol Forum. Their conversation
