Factbox: List of UK competition regulator cases as new boss steps in

Hashicorp

22/01/2025 15:34

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Britain's decision to force out the chair of its antitrust regulator after he failed to prioritise the Labour
government's growth agenda indicates the country's attempt to rein in Big Tech could be over.
    Marcus Bokkerink was replaced at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) late on Tuesday by Amazon's former boss in Britain, Doug Gurr.
    
    Here is the list of some high-profile cases under review by the UK's CMA.
    
 Case title  Case stage               CMA remarks                                                                                     Deadline
 Probe into  Launched strategic       To assess Google's position in search, search advertising services                              Oct. 13, 2025
 Google's    market status                                                                                                            
 general     designation probe                                                                                                        
 search,                                                                                                                              
 search ad                                                                                                                            
 services                                                                                                                             
 Mobile      Set for publication of   CMA said some inherent aspects of the supply of mobile browsers are contributing to             March 16,
 browsers    final report for case    competition issues, and revenue sharing arrangement between Apple and Google is likely to       2025
 and cloud   involving Meta,          reduce competition                                                                              
 gaming      Alphabet, Apple, BT,                                                                                                     
             Vodafone, among others                                                                                                   
 Probe into  CMA in talks  with       Accepts company's  commitments including proposals to remove third-party cookies from Chrome    
 Google's    Google on changes to     browser                                                                                         
 "Privacy    commitments                                                                                                              
 Sandbox"                                                                                                                             
 browser                                                                                                                              
 changes                                                                                                                              
 Probe into  Receipt of written and   Google harmed competition by using its dominance in online display advertising to favour its    
 suspected   oral representations on  own ad tech services                                                                            
 anti-compe  the statement of                                                                                                         
 titive      objections                                                                                                               
 conduct by                                                                                                                           
 Google in                                                                                                                            
 ad tech                                                                                                                              
 IBM's $6.4  Phase 1                  Investigating potential competition concerns involved in the anticipated $6.4 bln acquisition   Feb. 25, 2025
 bln                                  by IBM of HashiCorp                                                                             
 acquisitio                                                                                                                           
 n of                                                                                                                                 
 HashiCorp                                                                                                                            
 Synopsys'   CMA to consider          CMA believes it might accept remedies offered by parties including the divestment of some       
 $35 bln     undertakings offered     businesses, if it were to clear Ansys' $35 bln purchase by Synopsys                             
 purchase                                                                                                                             
 of                                                                                                                                   
 Synopsys                                                                                                                             
 ForFarmers  Phase 2                  CMA is undertaking its in-depth phase 2 probe under the revised processes for such              May 13, 2025
 /Boparan                             investigations, after initial probe found the potential joint venture between ForFarmers and    
 joint                                Boparan could lead to competition concerns                                                      
 venture                                                                                                                              
 Global      Interim report           Provisionally found competition concerns as part of in-depth probe into Global Business         March 9, 2025
 Business    published                Travel's $570 mln deal to buy CWT Holdings                                                      
 Travel's                                                                                                                             
 $570 mln                                                                                                                             
 deal to                                                                                                                              
 buy CWT                                                                                                                              
 Holdings                                                                                                                             
 Keysight's  Phase 1                  CMA is considering whether Keysight's $1.5 bln acquisition of Spirent would result in           March 13,
 $1.5 bln                             substantial lessening of competition                                                            2025
 acquisitio                                                                                                                           
 n of                                                                                                                                 
 Spirent                                                                                                                              
 Blackrock'  Merger inquiry launched  CMA has not yet launched its formal probe after considering whether Blackrock's $3.2 bln        Feb. 12, 2025
 s $3.2 bln                           acquisition of UK data group Preqin could raise competition issues, and have invited initial    
 acquisitio                           views from parties involved                                                                     
 n of                                                                                                                                 
 Preqin                                                                                                                               
 Schlumberg  Invited comments as      CMA has not yet launched its formal probe into Schlumberger's $8 bln purchase of ChampionX,     
 er's        part of information      but has issued preliminary invitation to comment after seeing potential competition concerns    
 (SLB's) $8  gathering process                                                                                                        
 bln                                                                                                                                  
 purchase                                                                                                                             
 of                                                                                                                                   
 ChampionX                                                                                                                            
 
 (Compiled by Aby Jose Koilparambil and Dhanush Vignesh Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
 ((abyjose.koilparambil@thomsonreuters.com))