Why Britain's Current Semi-Detachment From EU Competition Principles Could Become Complete Post Brexit

Much of the speculative commentary on Brexit and its implications for competition law has adopted "a business as usual" analysis. It is said that we are bound to follow EU law while we are members and that it is likely that competition law based on the EU/EEA model will kick in once we leave – subject to obvious changes on merger control etc. As we shall see, this analysis is not quite right.

One of the distinct features of EU competition policy, apart from its "single market" goal, was, and is, its embodiment of other public policy objectives.  These include environmental, health, social, labour and cultural objectives. In seeking to balance these objectives with competition policy, the European Court of Justice has held that public health outweighed competition considerations, that ethical standards outweighed them too and that the administration of justice also outweighed them.  (See Meca Medina, Laurent Piau & Wouters)