Henry Mostyn

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The following is part of our annual publication Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2025. Explore all topics or download the PDF.

Antitrust in 2024 was marked by evolving policy developments, vigorous enforcement, and eye-catching court decisions. In the U.S., an aggressive enforcement approach lead to unpredictability and lengthy merger review process across sectors. In the EU, enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) intensified scrutiny on digital platforms, while a landmark ruling in the Illumina/GRAIL matter clarified the scope of the EU Commission’s merger jurisdiction. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) cleared the Vodafone/Three merger with behavioral remedies, signaling a significant departure from its historic practice to require structural remedies. 2025 will see new antitrust leadership on both sides of the Atlantic with an expectation that the U.S. will largely return to a more traditional approach on antitrust under the Trump Administration and that Europe will continue to enforce digital rules and bring cases related to AI with a focus on promoting growth in clean tech and AI sectors.

UK Becomes Fourth Jurisdiction to Introduce Dedicated Digital Platform Regulation, with More Jurisdictions Likely to Follow

On 23 May, the UK Parliament passed the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill.  The new DMCC Act will bring about some of the most significant reforms to competition and consumer protection law in the UK in decades. Among other major reforms, it introduces a dedicated regime that provides for specific conduct rules for large digital platforms. The UK therefore becomes the fourth jurisdiction—after the EU with its Digital Market Act (DMA), Germany with its s.19A rules, and Japan with its new smartphone bill (also passed on 23 May)—to introduce rules that target a handful of the largest digital firms.[1]

On 21 May 2024, the UK Government published updated guidance on the application of the National Security and Investment Act (NSIA).  This includes:

On 11 April 2024, the CMA published an update paper (the Update Paper) in relation to its initial review of AI Foundation Models (FMs).  An accompanying technical update report (the Technical Update Report) was published on 16 April 2024, providing further detail on market developments and feedback from stakeholder engagement.  These updates follow the CMA’s September 2023 initial report into the same topic (the Initial Report).

The following post was originally included as part of our recently published memorandum “Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2024”.

Antitrust in 2023 was marked by a series of policy developments—some still nascent, some ripe for enforcement for the first time.  In the U.S., the FTC and DOJ finalized their drastically transformed merger guidelines.  In the EU, landmark new digital regulations became applicable for the first time.  And the UK government introduced a bill promising major new digital and consumer protection rules. 

On 20 November 2023, the Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Bill (DMCC) cleared the report stage and an expedited third reading in the House of Commons, at which a series of significant amendments were passed. 

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a landmark piece of legislation granting unprecedented powers to the European Commission to regulate large digital platforms. The DMA targets platforms that operate as gatekeepers between businesses and users, hold an “entrenched and durable position,” and operate one or more core platform services (CPSs).