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Antitrust, Competition and Trade

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European Commission issues Guidelines on Foreign Subsidies Regulation Antitrust, Competition and Trade

European Commission issues Guidelines on Foreign Subsidies Regulation

On 9 January 2026, the European Commission published Guidelines on the interpretation of certain concepts essential to the application of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation. The Foreign Subsidies Regulation is intended to regulate subsidies that are granted by third countries and that are deemed to distort competition within the internal market. The Guidelines clarify: - How the Commission will carry out the assessment of “distortions” – briefly, it will first examine if the foreign subsidiary strengthens the company’s competitive position within the European Union, and secondly, it will consider the impact on competition. - How the Commission will assess distortions within…
Mamo TCV Advocates
6th February 2026
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Consultation on Amendments to Malta’s Merger Rules Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Consultation on Amendments to Malta’s Merger Rules

On 15 January 2026, the Office for Competition within the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority published a consultation document, together with proposed amendments, recommending changes to the Control of Concentrations Regulations. The changes, if implemented, would considerably change the merger control process in Malta. The main proposals are outlined below: Change in the thresholds: At present, concentrations are notifiable if the aggregate turnover of the parties in Malta exceeds EUR 2.3 million and each of the parties have a turnover in Malta of at least 10% of the aggregate turnover. The proposal envisages the increase of the trigger turnover…
Annalies Muscat
19th January 2026
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The European Commission Initiates a Public Consultation on the EU Merger Guidelines Antitrust, Competition and Trade

The European Commission Initiates a Public Consultation on the EU Merger Guidelines

The European Commission (the ‘Commission’) has launched a public consultation on the  8th May 2025 to gather feedback on its ongoing review of the EU merger guidelines, with the aim of updating the framework for assessing the competitive impact of mergers. This review seeks to reflect changes in the economy, by giving adequate weight to innovation, efficiency, sustainability, and other less major transformational needs amongst others. Feedback to the Commission may be submitted by 3rd September, 2025. The consultation covers both the horizontal merger guidelines (which were published in 2004), applicable to mergers between competitors, and the non-horizontal merger guidelines…
Josefa Muscat and Annalies Muscat
16th May 2025
Influencer Guidelines
Influencers Take Note: MCCA Has Published Guidelines for Sponsored Content Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Influencers Take Note: MCCA Has Published Guidelines for Sponsored Content

Are you an influencer? Take note! The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority has now published guidelines that influencers should follow when uploading sponsored posts on social media platforms. We all know how important advertising is in the business world and, with the number of sponsored posts that are flooding social media platforms, businesses have taken to use influencers as the new powerhouses of digital marketing. As was discussed in our previous article on the topic, we do not have laws that specifically regulate influencer marketing. However, the Consumer Affairs Act – which transposes the provisions of the Unfair Trading…
Laura Spiteri
4th December 2024
Ensuring Product Safety in the Age of AI
AI in a Consumer-Driven World: Ensuring Product Safety in the Age of AI Antitrust, Competition and Trade

AI in a Consumer-Driven World: Ensuring Product Safety in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence (‘AI’) is revolutionising various industries and in today’s consumer-driven world, ensuring the safety of products is of paramount importance, more so when considering the innovative products being placed on the market. At the core of the AI Act are requirements that providers, manufacturers, importers, and distributors of AI systems must meet before making an AI system available for use or distribution on the Union market. These requirements cover AI systems that are, or that are safety components of, products such as toys, lifts, radio equipment, and medical devices which are classified as “high-risk” – that is AI systems…
Laura Spiteri
25th November 2024
Person wearing silver link bracelet round analog watch
EU Commission Publishes Findings on EU Competition Enforcement Framework Antitrust, Competition and Trade

EU Commission Publishes Findings on EU Competition Enforcement Framework

On 5 September 2024, the European Commission published a “Staff Working Document”  summarising the findings of the evaluation of two EU Regulations, Regulation 1/2003 and Regulation 773/2004, which concern the enforcement of EU competition law. These Regulations, which entered into force 20 years ago, lay out the procedural framework for the implementation of EU competition rules laid down in Articles 101 and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (“TFEU”). The evaluation exercise by the Commission has concluded that, in general, these Regulations have achieved their objective for effective, efficient and uniform application of EU competition law.  It has also noted that…
Mamo TCV Advocates
18th September 2024