Competition | UK Regulatory Outlook September 2025

Premier League and Manchester City settle APT sponsorship dispute 

The Premier League and Manchester City have settled the club’s arbitration challenge to the league’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) Rules. Manchester City had alleged that the APT rules are unfairly discriminatory, anti-competitive and represent a "tyranny of the majority". 

The proceedings have been terminated, with Manchester City confirming that the current APT rules are valid and binding. APT rules govern sponsorships and other commercial deals with entities linked to club owners or related parties, aiming to ensure fair market valuation and prevent competitive distortion via inflated revenues.  

The settlement preserves the APT framework as‑is, providing short‑term regulatory certainty for clubs and sponsors around valuation standards, disclosure expectations and approval processes for related‑party deals. It also avoids the risk of a precedent that might have constrained the league’s rule‑making in this area. For clubs with current or planned associated‑party arrangements, this stabilises the compliance baseline heading into the next commercial cycle, including renewals and new category deals.

European Commission accepts commitments offered by Microsoft relating to Microsoft Teams 

The European Commission has closed its antitrust probe into Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with Office after accepting Microsoft's commitments package. Under the agreed commitments, Microsoft will make its suite of applications (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) available without Teams and at a reduced price. 

The Commission has made no finding of infringement or dominance and there has been no admission of liability by Microsoft; the settlement means there will be no definitive ruling on the legality of the original bundling.  

The package signals the EU’s appetite to use unbundling, price constraints and interoperability commitments to shape competition quickly, even without formal infringement findings. 

Participation by class members in the collective action against Stagecoach South Western Trains

At a hearing before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), counsel for the Justin Gutmann, the class representative, Philip Moser KC told Judge Hodge Malek that take-up had been lower than anticipated, noting that this is the first UK collective case to attempt distribution on this scale. 

The CAT is currently considering issues around stakeholder distribution of the £25 million settlement reached with Stagecoach South Western Trains (SSWT) in 2023, while proceedings against other train operators remain ongoing.

Mr Gutmann's legal team attributed the low claims rate to limited public familiarity with the UK’s opt-out collective proceedings regime, which they say has created a degree of scepticism among potential claimants. They also highlighted practical challenges: the settlement relates to the earliest part of the overall claim period (largely pre‑2017), and SSWT no longer operates the South Western franchise or holds customer contact information, making outreach more difficult. 

The wider litigation alleges that rail operators serving routes in and out of London overcharged passengers by failing to make boundary fares readily available to Travelcard holders and by not adequately informing customers about these discounted tickets. Gutmann initially brought claims against First MTR South Western Trains, SSWT and London & South Eastern Railway, later adding Govia Thameslink Railway (Great Northern, Southern, Gatwick Express and Thameslink). The operators contest the allegations and have argued that Gutmann was wrong to say they had a duty to consumers to make cheaper tickets available.