UK Merger Control

This book is a fully up-to-date, comprehensive guide to the law, economics and practice of UK merger control law, including a review of the recently revised guidelines of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission.

This guide presents an integrated legal and economic assessment of the substantive appraisal of mergers as well as from the perspective of both law and economics. The guide examines in detail the following topics:-

• the history of the Enterprise Act and its development from the Fair Trading Act;
• the various regulatory bodies that form the institutional structure of the UK merger control regime;
• enterprises subject to merger control regulation and the jurisdictional thresholds of the Enterprise Act;
• the relationship of the Enterprise Act with the European Merger Regulation;
• the procedural and substantive practice of the Office of Fair Trading;
• references to, and in-depth reviews by, the Competition Commission;
• appeals to the Competition Appeal Tribunal;
• public interest mergers and the role of the Secretary of State;
• and merger remedies.

Uniquely, this book also provides insights into the substance and procedure of UK merger control from Simon Pritchard, formerly Senior Director of Mergers, OFT.