United Kingdom

On 13 November 2020, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) partially upheld JD Sports’ appeal against the CMA’s decision to prohibit its completed acquisition of Footasylum requiring it to fully divest Footasylum.[1] The CMA found that the parties were close competitors in sports-inspired casual clothing and footwear in stores and online. The CMA concluded there was no evidence that the impact of COVID-19 would remove its competition concerns.

On 12 May 2020, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in an appeal against the CAT’s cost ruling in the successful appeals by Pfizer and Flynn against the CMA’s abuse of dominance decision relating to the anti-epilepsy drug, phenytoin sodium. In its costs ruling, the CAT considered that the relevant starting point was that the unsuccessful party should pay the successful party’s costs.

On 21 April 2020, the CAT dismissed Ecolab’s appeal against the CMA’s decision of 8 October 2019 that (i) Ecolab’s completed acquisition of the Holchem Group resulted in a SLC in the supply of formulated cleaning chemicals, and (ii) the most effective and proportionate remedy was for Ecolab to divest the overlapping Holchem business to an approved purchaser.