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On 25 May 2022 the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in Pfizer and Flynn v CMA [2022] UKSC 14, reinstating the Competition Appeal Tribunal's ("CAT's") decision to award Pfizer and Flynn costs arising from their successful appeal against the decision by the Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") which found that Pfizer and Flynn had abused their dominant position in relation to the supply of epilepsy medication.  

Travers Smith LLP has advised its long-standing client Ancala Partners LLP (Ancala), the critical mid-market infrastructure investor, on the proposed €136.2 million acquisition of aerial emergency services businesses from Babcock International Group plc (Babcock) in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Mozambique.

The challenge for a business when drafting a restrictive covenant is that if it seeks to constrain the other party's freedom to operate too much or for too long in the interests of protecting its own business, the courts may refuse to enforce the restriction. Two recent Court of Appeal rulings highlight some of the hazards in relation to post-termination non-compete obligations in B2B agreements.

Travers Smith LLP has advised an investment vehicle backed by client Epiris on its acquisition of Sepura.

Last month, the UK Government set out its legislative programme for this Parliament in the Queen's Speech. In this briefing, we look at some of the proposals relevant to business which have had less media attention.

The UK Government has confirmed that it plans to introduce significantly stronger powers for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to enforce consumer law, including the ability to impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover. This is a major change for consumer-facing businesses, although question marks remain over the exact timing.

Travers Smith LLP is advising Ideagen plc on its recommended £1.058bn takeover offer by Rainforest Bidco Limited, a company indirectly controlled by funds managed by Hg Pooled Management Limited (“Hg”), announced on 9 May 2022 (the "Hg Offer").

Meet the people who make up our Dispute Resolution practice and learn more about the market-leading work we do. Containing a host of thought leadership pieces on trending topics and current developments in the UK litigation market and insights into what matters to us as a team.

Following lengthy debate, the Government has published details of the way in which it will reform the UK competition law landscape. However, with many aspects requiring legislative change, it is as yet unclear when these will be given teeth. Our briefing discusses the key changes to the merger, markets and competition law regimes. We will comment separately on the overhaul of the consumer law regime.

At the end of March 2022, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced the unconditional clearance at Phase 1 of Freshways group's (Freshways) acquisition of the Medina group (Medina).

Travers Smith LLP has advised Equistone Partners Europe Limited ("Equistone") and other selling shareholders on the sale of FirstPort, a leading UK residential property services company.

Our regular round-up of recent and forthcoming developments in law and practice for in-house counsel.

Travers Smith LLP is advising UK wealth manager Brewin Dolphin Holdings plc ("Brewin Dolphin") on its recommended £1.6bn takeover by RCB Wealth Management ("RBC"), an indirect subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada.

The High Court has recently rejected an attempt by British Sugar to challenge aspects of the UK's post-Brexit sugar tariffs on the basis that they amounted to an illegal subsidy to its competitor, Tate & Lyle. In this briefing, we look at the wider implications of the ruling for the UK's post-Brexit state aid and tariff regimes.

With COP 26 still fresh in the memories of lawmakers, and both the European Green Deal and UK Government's 'Net Zero Strategy' setting the goal of being climate-neutral by 2050, it is no surprise that competition law is having to examine its interaction with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda.

In the fifth episode of the series, Knowledge Counsel Jonathan Rush looks at the impact of Brexit on UK law. 

The UK's departure from the European Union has not led to all EU-derived law being jettisoned; on the contrary, a significant proportion of it has been kept and the UK now has a new category of "retained EU law". This briefing explains what retained EU law is and why it's important.

Since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK's merger control regime was untangled from the EU's one-stop shop, and has therefore operated as a standalone merger control regime in parallel to the EU. 12 months on, we have outlined 6 key trends in UK merger control below, and the impact of those trends for corporate transactions.

The UK Government has been consulting on wide-ranging proposals to reform competition and consumer law. In this briefing, we consider the proposed reforms to consumer law and ask whether their impact on consumer-facing businesses will be comparable to that of the GDPR.

On 3 October 2021, the UK Competition & Markets Authority ('CMA') published its recommendation to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as to whether the existing Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Regulation ('VABER'), both in force in the EU and retained from EU law following Brexit, should be renewed or varied in the UK. The retained VABER will expire on 31 May 2022 so, without a renewal or variation, an automatic exemption regime for vertical agreements would cease to apply in the UK.