Tag: M&A
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Investment screening in the Netherlands: Where do we stand? Key takeaways from the BTI annual report 2025
The Dutch Investment Screening Bureau (BTI) published its third annual report in April 2026, covering the year 2025. The report reflects a screening regime that is growing in both caseload and enforcement activity. In this blog, we highlight the key takeaways: the 2025 statistics, the first prohibition decision under the Vifo Act that became a conditional approval on appeal, the first gun-jumping fine, and the expanding scope…
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UK Competition and Market Authority’s consultation on merger remedies confirms greater flexibility
The CMA’s consultation on its revised merger remedies guidance, published on 16 October 2025, confirms a more flexible approach to remedies including in Phase 1 – a trend already seen in recent CMA decisions.
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The ACM’s mission to plug the “small acquisitions gap”
In line with recent developments in other countries, the ACM’s chairman Martijn Snoep has expressed a desire for new competences to review relatively small mergers (in size) that fall below the notification thresholds of the Dutch Competition Act (DCA).[1] In the ACM’s view, mergers that fall below these thresholds can nonetheless cause competition problems. In…
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Draconian but unavoidable? Illumina’s quest for GRAIL ends in a record fine
Sprint races can be decided by hundredths of a second. But the sprinter who pushes off before the starting gun sounds “jumps the gun” and faces harsh punishment. In our never-ending attempts to make competition law sound cool, practitioners refer to the completion of a deal before mandatory clearance is obtained as “gun jumping”, even…
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Three/O2 – EU merger control test clarified? (And lions in Regent’s Park)
“Formalistic”, “reductionist”, “selective and unbalanced or even deficient”. Advocate General Juliane Kokott did not mince her words in last week’s Opinion on the General Court’s judgment in CK Telecoms, in which she asks the Court of Justice to annul the judgment and refer the case back to the General Court. An AG Opinion is an…
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Illumina/Grail: An unholy war continues
The European Commission has blocked a merger that did not meet any European jurisdictional thresholds for the first time. In a case that has seen the Commission pushing at the boundaries of its remit, it has prohibited Illumina’s $8 billion acquisition of GRAIL. Article 22 EUMR The Illumina/GRAIL merger did not meet the thresholds under…
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Legitimately expected: Commission may review Illumina/GRAIL deal
Today the General Court handed down its hotly anticipated judgment in the Illumina/GRAIL merger, deciding that the European Commission has jurisdiction to review the merger. This judgment is hugely consequential, as it confirms that EU Member States have the power to refer mergers to the Commission even when those mergers do not meet the national…
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New UK national security rules – What do they mean for life science investments?
The National Security and Investment Act 2021 (NSI Act) comes into force on 4 January 2022. From then, the UK Government will be empowered to call in for review any qualifying acquisition which may give rise to UK national security concerns. The NSI Act captures acquisitions of any size, including in certain cases where minority…
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The Amici Curiosi – And other developments in Illumina/GRAIL
In this post, we share the latest developments in the Illumina/GRAIL merger. This case involves the now completed acquisition by Illumina of GRAIL, a company that has developed a test, which has shown the ability to detect multiple cancers from a single blood draw. GRAIL was founded by Illumina but spun off in 2016. Illumina…