Welcome to Oxford Competition Law

Oxford Competition Law (OCL) is the only fully integrated service to combine recognised market-leading commentaries with rigorous, selective National case reports and analysis from EU member states. OCL provides a suite of fully interlinked competition analysis, peer reviewed case reports and source materials - the ideal resource for assisting with case preparation.

This service includes enhanced online versions of Oxford University Press' key commentaries in EU competition law: Bellamy & Child: European Union Law of Competition, Faull & Nikpay on The EU Law of Competition, and Whish & Bailey's Competition Law.

A New Regime under the Malta Competition Act

Lisa Abela
17th June 2019

Last month, a Bill to amend the Competition Act (Chapter 379 of the Laws of Malta) was approved by the Malta Parliament and passed as law on 31 May 2019, as Act XVI of 2019 (see here). As a result of these amendments, the public enforcement of competition law in Malta has once again been revamped since the last revisions to the Act in 2011.

Read more here >>

When time is of the essence in merger cases – fixing it fast

John Boyce and Anna Lyle-Smythe
29th May 2019

Where parties commit to divest a business in order to secure European Commission clearance of a deal notified under the EU Merger Regulation, the remedy buyer and the terms of the divestment agreement must be approved by the Commission before the divestment can be implemented. In most cases, this approval process involves the parties submitting a purchaser approval request after the conditional clearance decision. This “standard purchaser assessment process” culminates in the Commission issuing a separate purchaser approval decision, typically some months after the main transaction has closed.

However, in a substantial number of cases the parties include an ‘upfront buyer provision’ in the commitments, requiring the closing of the main transaction to be delayed until the Commission has formally approved the remedy buyer. Sometimes, a remedy buyer is secured even earlier in the process and the Commission accepts a ‘fix-it first’ remedy, where approval of the buyer is incorporated into the conditional clearance decision itself.

Read the full article here >>

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