Until the last year, merger control in the UK has been fairly hostile towards tech deals, with a highly interventionist competition authority taking an uncompromising line on global deals; even where those deals had only a limited nexus to the UK. The EU has generally taken a more pragmatic approach, clearing Google’s acquisition of Fitbit in 2020, and Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision in May 2023, following the acceptance of remedies by the tech firms. However, it, too, has taken some more hardline positions, such as prohibiting the Booking.com/etraveli merger based on a novel theory of harm related to the Booking.com travel ecosystem. 

This has all taken place against the backdrop of an explosion of tech regulation (see our prior blog post here). The wave of new rules also introduced new merger filing requirements for those tech firms who have been designated as gatekeepers in the EU (under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (2022)), or firms with strategic market status in the UK (under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) (2024)). Just this month the CMA designated Google with strategic market status (SMS) in general search and search advertising services. This comes, almost to the day, two years after the EU’s designation of Google’s parent company and five others as gatekeepers. More tech regulation is on the horizon, for example the remaining parts of the AI Act, on general-purpose AI, are due to enter into force in the EU in August 2026.Continue Reading Technology Industry Trends and M&A Outlook in the EU and UK, Part 2: Antitrust/FDI Environment for Tech