Market report: competition
With competition authorities around the world looking ever-more closely at deals, Iman Tribak sets out the issues in-house lawyers need to be aware of in a challenging market.
Antitrust enforcement is shifting, with the competition world working under in a shadow of uncertainty. 2023 has brought with it a host of geopolitical challenges including the rising cost of living, the energy crisis and political instability. Against this backdrop, antitrust authorities, armed with greater resources and an increasingly interventionist attitude, have grown increasingly confident pursuing cases that may have been overlooked in previous years. These shifts have intensified unpredictability in merger reviews and expanded the scope of behaviour subject to antitrust enforcement rules.
David Little, a partner in Latham & Watkins’ London and Brussels antitrust teams, explains: ‘There’s always ebbs and flows, but we’re very much in a phase of greater antitrust enforcement.’
