Barrister: Matthew O’Regan
Summary: To assist businesses and public authorities, specialist competition and State aid barrister, Matthew O’Regan has prepared a guide to how UK and EU competition law and EU State aid law will apply during the COVID-19 crisis. Matthew is continuing to work remotely and can advise law firms, local authorities and other public bodies, businesses and individuals on all aspects of competition and State aid law.
This continues to be a fast-developing area. Matthew has therefore updated his guide to reflect developments up to 8th June 2020. These include:
- New exclusions from UK and EU competition law for collaboration in the dairy and dairy products industries
- An update on the CMA’s work to control profiteering
- Extensions to the EU COVID-19 State Aid Temporary Framework to cover support in the form of subordinated debt and, subject to strict conditions, aid to recapitalise companies through state provision of equity or hybrid capital
- A new section on merger control, which in particular considers the application of the ‘failing firm defence’ when a business is in financial difficulty as a result of the crisis