The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 – Changes to UK competition and merger rules

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 is wide-ranging and its impact on digital markets and consumer protection rules has received significant attention. However, the Act will also change the way that UK mergers are regulated and give UK competition authorities more powers to investigate and punish breaches of competition rules, with these changes due to be amongst the first to come into effect, in December 2024 or January 2025.   In this webinar Charles Livingstone and Jamie Dunne considered: how does the Act modify the UK's rules on which mergers are subject to potential investigation by the CMA?; what new powers does the CMA have when investigating breaches of competition law?; and how does the Act affect penalties for breaching competition law? Speaker biographies: Charles Livingstone Charles leads Brodies' competition law practice, supporting clients on sensitive and strategically important matters including obtaining merger clearance for major M&A projects, investigating potential competition breaches, responding to dawn raids and acting in competition litigation. He also advises private and public sector clients on State aid and public procurement, in both contentious and non-contentious scenarios. Charles also supports commercial, public sector, charitable and individual clients on public law issues including judicial review, human rights, information law, charity law and public authority powers and duties. He advises clients on constitutional matters, such as the limits on the Scottish Parliament’s powers, and is the co-head of Brodies' Brexit Advisory Group. He also has significant experience of drafting legislation, including Acts of the Scottish Parliament. Charles is an experienced litigator, having handled major cases in courts up to the UK Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Charles also heads up Brodies' cross-practice food & drink sector group. Jamie Dunne Jamie Dunne is an experienced competition, procurement and subsidy control lawyer, and also advises a range of public, private and third sector clients on public law and regulatory matters including statutory interpretation, vires issues and information law. He joined Brodies from a leading international law firm and has also spent time on secondment to the public sector. His focus is on advising on technically complex matters in a clear, understandable and useful way. Jamie regularly advises on contentious and non-contentious public procurement matters, subsidy control and State aid, merger control issues (including CMA and European Commission clearance processes), competition damages actions and competition compliance. He has a particular interest in sectors subject to economic regulation, including energy, water, telecoms, rail, ports and airports, financial services, housing and health services, and further and higher education. Receive our latest legal updates: https://brodiespm.concep.com/preferen... More of our Enlightened Thinking: https://brodies.com/insights/ Connect with us on LinkedIn:   / brodies-llp   Follow us on Instagram:   / brodiesllp   Follow us on Facebook:   / brodiesllp