The Office of Fair Trading ('OFT') announced on 19 November 2010 that it was referring the proposed acquisition of the titanate and zirconate business of Johnson Matthey by Dorf Ketal Chemicals to the Competition Commission (the "CC").

On 14 July 2010 the High Court ruled that a restrictive provision in a confidentiality agreement was anti-competitive by both object and effect and breached Article 101 of the TFEU.

The Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission (the "authorities") have published for consultation a second draft of their new joint merger assessment guidelines.

The Competition Commission ('CC') has provisionally cleared the completed acquisition by Sector Treasury Services Limited ('STS') of Butlers (a trading division of ICAP plc) which provides treasury management advisory ('TMA') services.

The OFT has referred to the CC the anticipated acquisition by Ratcliff Palfinger Limited of the commercial vehicle tail lifts spare parts business of Ross & Bonnyman Limited.

The newly published National Infrastructure Plan 2010 ('NIP') has been heralded as the first ever infrastructure plan for the UK.

Thomas Cook, Co-operative Group ('CGL') and Midlands Co-operative Society ('Midlands') have requested that the OFT fast track their proposed joint venture, under which the parties intend to merge their travel agency and retail call centre businesses.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change ("DECC") is reviewing the Office of Gas and Electricity Market's ("Ofgem") regulatory role in order to determine whether this needs to be changed in any way.

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has issued proposals to merge the competition and market investigation functions of the two main UK competition bodies: the Competition Commission ('CC') and Office of Fair Trading ('OFT').

The US Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp., the world's leading computer chip maker, charging the company with illegally using its dominant market position to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.

The General Court has dismissed in full an appeal by two French pharmacy associations challenging the legitimacy of a European Commission ('Commission') decision to conduct dawn raids in the French biomedical analysis market.

Increasing public and political pressure in the last week culminated on 13 July 2011 with News Corporation ('News Corp') abandoning its bid to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC ('BSkyB'), in which it already holds a 39% stake.

Most compliance professionals in the UK financial services industry will be focused on the increasing regulatory scrutiny that originates from the UK, including Peter Freeman's recent widely reported speech in which he examined the issues connected with a (as yet hypothetical) competition investigation of the UK banking sector.

On 16 June 2011, the French Court of Cassation (the 'Court') quashed the order made by the Paris Court of Appeal requesting an expert report on the methods for seizing and storing electronic data found during dawn raids.

The Competition Commission ('CC') has concluded that BAA is still required to sell Stansted and either Edinburgh or Glasgow airports.

The OFT has recently published its decision on the anticipated acquisition by Atlas Copco Limited ('Atlas Copco') of the medical gas division of Penlon Limited ('Penlon') (announced on 7 July).

The Competition Appeal Tribunal ('CAT') has confirmed that the OFT is in time to review Ryanair's acquisition of a minority interest in Aer Lingus, despite the acquisition dating back to 2006.

On 29 July 2011 the OFT published its provisional decision to refer the audit market to the Competition Commission ('CC') and has invited comments.

The Office of Fair Trading ('OFT') has cleared the acquisition by Kingfisher plc, the parent company of B&Q, of 30 former Focus DIY stores.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, has published the results of the consultation launched on 3 March on the undertakings in lieu offered by News Corporation in relation to its proposed merger with BSkyB.