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ARTICLE · 27 JANUARY 2025

En Route: A New UK-EU Competition Cooperation Agreement

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A new UK-EU competition cooperation agreement is on the horizon.

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
Stacey Gray
Stacey Gray

A new UK-EU competition cooperation agreement is on the horizon.

On 29 October 2024, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission formally concluded the technical negotiations on a new future competition cooperation agreement between the UK and EU following the opening of negotiations in May this year.1 This will supplement the existing UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) which provided for the possibility of a supplementing agreement dealing with competition cooperation matters.

This new future agreement will be of interest to businesses notifying transactions and mergers to competition authorities in the EU or UK. Once in force, it will enable direct cooperation between the European Commission, the national competition authorities of EU Member States ('NCAs') and the UK's CMA when it comes to competition investigations. A novel aspect of this agreement is that it will be the first of its type to enable NCAs to cooperate

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