Abstract

The chapter begins by looking at the pre-Brexit competition law context, outlining the development of UK and EU competition law and the relationship between the two. This is followed by a more detailed overview of the Brexit transformation, focusing on the immediate implications for competition law in the UK arising from Brexit. There is then analysis of post-Brexit competition law reform, policy developments, and regulatory recalibration consequent upon EU withdrawal. The penultimate section is a normative and empirical analysis, focused on the regulatory, legal, and economic impact of the revised substantive and enforcement context in the UK. The chapter concludes by observing that, while there has so far been little explicit divergence in the legal rules and their interpretation by the competition authorities and courts, there are longer-term trends that potentially make greater divergence inevitable, which would have cost implications.