Intelligence

Hong Kong is poised to significantly expand its competition law enforcement regime through three major reforms: granting the Competition Commission compulsory information-gathering powers...

On September 30, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1776, known as the Competition and Opportunity in Markets for a Prosperous, Equitable and Transparent Economy (COMPETE) Act, into law. The new Act, which will take effect on January 1, 2027, represents the most significant expansion of California antitrust law in decades by extending the reach of the state’s Cartwright Act beyond coordinated conduct by two or more firms to monopolization and monopsonization by a single firm.

On September 24, 2026, the Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced it had entered into a consent agreement with Kalibrate Canada Inc. (Kalibrate) to address concerns regarding Kalibrate’s collection and distribution of detailed retail fuel data through its Kalibrate Market Intelligence product (KMI). More broadly, the matter signals the Bureau’s willingness to challenge information-sharing arrangements under multiple provisions of the Competition Act (Act), including through abuse of dominance where the intermediary itself is alleged to be dominant.

Minimum advertised pricing (MAP) policies have come under the Competition Bureau’s microscope. The Bureau announced on September 28, 2026, that it has launched an investigation into whether MAP policies in the grocery sector are limiting competition among grocers and keeping lower prices out of reach for consumers.

On September 30, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1776, the Competition and Opportunity in Markets for a Prosperous, Equitable and Transparent Economy Act (the “COMPETE Act” or the “Act”). The Act amends the Cartwright Act, California’s principal antitrust statute, to now prohibit monopolization and monopsonization by a single firm. The Act takes effect on January 1, 2027.

The Netherlands is poised to grant its competition authority unprecedented power to scrutinize mergers that fall below traditional notification thresholds, targeting potentially harmful transactions such as roll-up strategies and killer acquisitions. While the Dutch House of Representatives has approved the bill despite criticism from the Council of State, the legislation introduces an asymmetric threshold system and raises standard notification requirements, fundamentally reshaping the country's merger con