Competition | UK Regulatory Outlook May 2025

European Commission launches consultation for review of EU Merger Guidelines 

The European Commission has initiated two consultations to gather feedback for reviewing its guidelines on horizontal and non-horizontal mergers. The Horizontal Merger Guidelines, adopted in 2004, and the Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines, adopted in 2008, outline the core principles and factors considered by the Commission when assessing notified mergers concerning competition. The two consultations consist of a general, online questionnaire and a targeted, in-depth consultation. 

The general consultation is seeking views on how the Commission should assess mergers and has sent out an online questionnaire, designed to collect stakeholder views on its approach to merger assessments. The questionnaire seeks input on the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and coherence of the current guidelines. Stakeholders are invited to provide their perspectives on whether the Merger Guidelines require updates or amendments to ensure that the Commission's assessments adequately address issues such as competitiveness and innovation. 

The in-depth consultation aims to gather detailed views on seven specific areas, supported by technical working papers on each, to build on the issues raised in the general consultation. The papers relate to competitiveness and resilience, market power, innovation, decarbonisation, digitalisation, efficiencies, public policy, security and labour market considerations. 

This initiative aims to foster debate and discussion on current challenges, including the legal and economic criteria currently employed by the Commission. 

The Commission has invited responses to both the general and the in-depth consultations by 3 September 2025. Further engagement will take place through workshops and a consultation on the draft revised Merger Guidelines. The new, revised Merger Guidelines are expected to be adopted by the end of 2027. 

Strategic steer for the CMA 

The UK government has delivered a new strategic steer to prioritise growth while ensuring effective competition and consumer protection. This directive aims to reset the priorities of the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), to create a level playing field for businesses, by creating a more transparent, timely and responsive regulation.  

The CMA's new public commitment focuses on enhancing the pace, predictability, proportionality and process of its mergers investigations, digital initiatives and consumer protection work. These efforts are designed to provide businesses with greater clarity and confidence in its operations. The government expects other regulators to demonstrate the same level of ambition. 

The strategic steer is part of the government's broader commitment to regulatory reform, which includes plans to consolidate the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) into the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 

For more information, the strategic steer to the CMA can be found here. 

Coming up: DMA Compliance Workshops  

The European Commission has scheduled a series of Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance workshops with major tech companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bytedance, Meta, and Microsoft, throughout June and July 2025. These workshops aim to allow business users and consumer groups to comment on compliance with the EU's tech gatekeeper legislation. 

Hosted by the European Commission, these sessions will involve interested third parties to gather their views on specific issues related to the measures implemented by those designated as gatekeepers to ensure effective compliance of their core platform services with the DMA. These workshops follow the initial round held in March 2024. 

In addition to these workshops, the Commission is also drafting guidance to be issued to the gatekeepers on the interplay between GDPR and the DMA, which is intended to resolve a potential conflict between the two pieces of legislation. Under the DMA, a gatekeeper needs to provide an end-user with their data in order for it to be easy for them to transfer to another platform; however, under GDPR, personal data can only be shared in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner, and with specific, explicit, and legitimate purposes. 

For more information, and to register, please visit here.