EU Court Confirms That National Competition Authorities Have Flexibility To Extend Antitrust Deadlines

European competition investigations seldom unfold in straight lines. They expand, contract, and change direction as new facts surface and new actors enter the frame. In a preliminary ruling delivered on 15 January 2026 in Imballaggi Piemontesi Srl v. Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (C-588/24), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed what practitioners have long suspected: National competition authorities may extend investigative deadlines where the scope of an inquiry widens or its complexity deepens. Such extensions must be reasoned, communicated in time, and remain open to judicial scrutiny, but procedural flexibility, the CJEU made clear, is not an aberration. It is a defining feature of EU competition enforcement.