European Union: Announced EU-UK Competition Cooperation Agreement

On 29 October 2024, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) announced a competition cooperation agreement by concluding the technical negotiations. The agreement, serving as a supplement to the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), enables direct cooperation in competition investigations between the EU Commission, the national competition authorities (NCAs) of the EU Member States, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority. It allows NCAs to directly cooperate with a third country's competition authority. The agreement focuses on mutual notification of significant antitrust and merger investigations, coordination of investigations to avoid jurisdictional conflicts, and establishes principles for cooperation, including the requirement for a waiver for the exchange of confidential information. As the next step, the Commission prepares a proposal subject to the Council’s decision, after which the EU and the UK need to ratify the agreement.