Merger Control in the United Kingdom

Dr Andrew Scott is a lecturer at the Norwich Law School (University of East Anglia), and a Competition Editor for the Practical Law Company. He is the Director of the LLM in International Competition Law and Policy at UEA, and a contributing editor of the Encyclopedia of Competition Law. He has held visiting academic positions at the Universities of Trier and Muenster. He has published widely on competition issues, and was awarded the Modern Law Review Wedderburn Prize 2003.Professor Morten Hviid became Professor of Competition Law at the Norwich Law School (University of East Anglia) in 2004 having previously taught economics at the Universities of Copenhagen, Warwick and UEA. He is a former editor of the Journal of Industrial Economics and the International Journal of Industrial Organization. He has published widely on competition issues, and was awarded the Journal of Economic Integration Daeyand Prize 1999.Professor Bruce Lyons is Professor of Economics at the University of East Anglia. He is a Reporting Member of the UK Competition Commission and a member of the Academic Advisory Group to the Competition Directorate of the European Commission. He has held visiting academic positions at the European University Institute, Florence and the University of Melbourne. He is a former editor of the Journal of Industrial Economics, an associate editor of Economica, and has published widely on competition issues.Mr Christopher Bright, a partner of Shearman and Sterling LLP, practices in the field of antitrust law in the UK and Europe. He has extensive experience of major cross-border M&A transactions, as well as advising a wide range of sectors on joint ventures, cartels, monopoly infringement, complex contractual arrangements and the European Union public procurement and state aid rules. He is also a leading practitioner in utility regulation, with particular expertise in energy and water sectors. He is experienced in enforcement of antitrust rights in the UK courts. Christopher Bright joined Shearman and Sterling LLP as a partner in 2001. He came from Clifford Chance where he was head of its European competition practice.

A specialist work in this area is to be welcomed, particularly when it is as lucid and well written as is this one. Even if this text were not good it would be recommended purely for being the first of its kind, and Oxford University Press are to be congratulated for bringing out books in such a timely fashion dealing with both the EC and UK regimes. It is a pleasure, however, to be able to recommend this text not because it is timely, but because it is clear, well-structured and comprehensive in its treatment of the issues raised by this most complex area of commercial regulation.

• INTRODUCTION: THE STRUCTURE AND CONTEXT OF MERGER CONTROL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM; PART I: THE SCOPE OF MERGER CONTROL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM; PART II: THE SUBSTANTIVE APPRAISAL OF MERGERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM; PART III: THE PROCEDURE AND ENFORCEMENT OF MERGER CONTROL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM; PART IV: SPECIAL CASES IN UK MERGER CONTROL; CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE OF UK MERGER CONTROL; APPENDICES; RELEVANT STATUTE; RELEVANT GUIDANCE; SCHEMATIC DIAGRAMS OF THE MERGER CONTROL PROCESS; STANDARD FORMS