It’s been over three years since the UK’s National Security and Investment (NSI) regime came into force. Since then, the regime has remained largely unchanged, with several attempts over the period to increase the transparency and clarity of the regime through the publication of Annual Reports and market guidance notes. On 22 July 2025, the UK Government announced three significant updates to the regime: A 12-week consultation on proposed reforms to the 17 sectors that give rise to mandatory notification; An announcement that certain types of transactions (notably in respect of internal reorganisations) would be removed from the scope of the NSI regime; and The publication of its fourth Annual Report on the operation of the regime. Together with the Government’s Industrial Strategy and National Security Strategy, these updates reflect the Government’s efforts to ensure that the NSI regime keeps apace with growing national security threats while at the same time promoting investment in line with the Government’s broader growth agenda. For investors and corporates active in the UK, these developments are important: they highlight where the focus of the Government is shifting, how the regime is operating in practice and the implications for deal execution. Below we consider the main reforms proposed and the impact for businesses.

It’s all change at the European Commission. Teresa Ribera has taken over the stewardship of DG COMP from Margrethe Vestager, alongside a wider brief including  environmental and social policy that could conflict with competition law orthodoxy. This is set against a backdrop of intensifying political pressure for EU regulation to support the development and productivity of the flat EU economy and possibly the promotion of European champions. In this article, we consider the key EU competition law developments that are likely to impact M&A in 2025 within the world’s largest trading bloc.

Key competition law and digital markets aspects of the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (“DMCC”), enforced by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), came into force on 1 January 2025. For more information, see our in-depth analyses of the DMCC. We take note below of the UK’s new merger review thresholds, which apply to all deals completing after 1 January 2025 (other than those anticipated deals in respect of which the CMA already had a formal Phase One investigation open in 2024).

The new European Commission, under Ursula von der Leyen for a second term, kicked off on 1 December 2024. Teresa Ribera is the new head of European Competition Policy. After Margrethe Vestager’s ten year tenure, there is a strong prospect of a change in focus at DG COMP. From a structural perspective, Ribera’s formal title - Executive Vice President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition - breaks from the past, highlighting that her remit extends beyond competition to encompass environmental and social policy.  Von der Leyen’s instructions to Ribera emphasise this shift: “Europe needs a new approach to competition policy – one that is more supportive of companies scaling up in global markets, allows European businesses and consumers to reap all the benefits of effective competition and is better geared to our common goals, including decarbonisation and a just transition.” In this article, we outline our early views on what to expect from Ribera, analysing her upcoming policy priorities, discussing how she might approach key international relationships and evaluating the extent to which real change may be seen in practice.

At a time of significant geopolitical challenges, many jurisdictions are looking at their investment screening regimes to ensure that they can adequately safeguard national security and public order. Within this context, there have been – or will likely soon be – significant changes to FDI regimes across the world. In this article, BCLP lawyers from Brussels, Hamburg, London, Paris and Washington DC explore current or forthcoming amendments to the FDI regimes in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

2024 is shaping up to be a year of significant change in Brussels. European Parliamentary elections in June will be followed by the appointment of a new Commission in the autumn. After two terms and 10 years at the helm of EU competition policy (which is unprecedented in recent times), Margrethe Vestager is likely to move on from her post as the bloc’s top antitrust enforcer – and her replacement will likely bring a new enforcement agenda. This article explores the top current trends and developments affecting M&A regulation in Europe, focusing on the continued targeting of “below threshold” deals via Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (“EUMR”), the rise of the new ecosystems theory of harm, the role of the Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) and Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”) screening regimes and sustainability as a factor in the substantive assessment of mergers – all set against the backdrop of the incoming new Commission that will drive EU competition policy until 2029.