Mergers in UK Law
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R v Monopolies and Mergers Commission and Another ex parte South Yorkshire Transport Ltd and Others
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At the other, there is "nearly complete", as where someone says that he is in substantial agreement with what has just been said. The courts have repeatedly warned against the dangers of taking an inherently imprecise word, and by redefining it thrusting on it a spurious degree of precision.
In such a case the court is entitled to substitute its own opinion for that of the person to whom the decision has been entrusted only if the decision is so aberrant that it cannot be classed as rational: Edwards v. Bairstow [1956] A.C. 14.
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R v Monopolies and Mergers Commission, ex parte Argyll Group Plc
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Lastly, good public administration requires decisiveness and finality, unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary.
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Ryanair Holdings Plc v Office of Fair Trading and Another
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It is, to my mind, self-evident that concurrent investigations in the UK and in Europe would be both oppressive and mutually destructive. I accept, therefore, that the duty of sincere cooperation does go beyond avoiding inconsistent decisions and extends to overlapping jurisdictions.
Counsel for OFT and Aer Lingus also rely on the provisions of the Enterprise Act to which I have referred. They point out that they lay down a strict timetable from initial reference to final conclusion without any power comparable to that of a court to stay proceedings at any stage if it thinks fit. There is no point short of a decision by the Competition Commission at which the process could be halted in the manner suggested by Ryanair.
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IBA Health Ltd v Office of Fair Trading
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Thus, at one end of the spectrum, a "low intensity" of review is applied to cases involving issues "depending essentially on political judgment" (de Smith para 13–056–7) . At the other end of the spectrum are decisions infringing fundamental rights where unreasonableness is not equated with "absurdity" or "perversity", and a "lower" threshold of unreasonableness is used:
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Livanova Plc v Sorin SPA
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I mention this matter because the court has an interest of its own in knowing what exactly it is expected to do on an application of the present kind. If it is asked to carry out a careful, thorough scrutiny of the benefits and dis-benefits of the proposal that will require the parties to put in extensive material to satisfy the court of those matters. It will involve the judge doing extensive pre-reading, particularly in a case where he is likely to hear from one side only.
- PUBLIC CONTROL OF MERGERS
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VERTICAL MERGERS AND MARKET FORECLOSURE
In recent years, antitrust officials have recognized that vertical arrangements can cause competitive harm through two routes: first, they can facilitate collusion among rivals, and second, they ca...
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Psychological Attributes of Mergers — Part 1
The reasons why mergers have a hazy, hostile or indifferent image in the minds of many otherwise rational people will not allow superficial, simple or easy explanations. As a business activity, in ...
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Employee Relations in Mergers and Acquisitions
The human aspects of mergers and acquisitions receive less emphasis than the more easily controlled financial aspects. A review of the existing literature and research suggests that mergers and acq...
- Mergers & Acquisitions Comparative Guide
- De-mergers
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Mergers and acquisitions: post-completion immigration actions
Where an organisation has a Tier 2 Sponsor Licence to employ non-EEA workers they have a responsibility to report to the Home Office when certain events occur. Examples include where the organisati...
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UK mergers regime - Government prioritising national security
On 17 October 2017 the UK Government published a Green Paper heralding reform of national security and infrastructure investment review in the UK (the Green Paper). Specifically, the Go...