By Legal Futures Associate VinciWorks
The Government’s newly launched consultation on reforming the UK competition regime could radically change merger control and market investigations. While billed as a pro-growth reset, the proposals risk injecting political calculus into regulatory decision-making, increasing uncertainty and volatility for businesses navigating mergers and acquisitions.
The consultation proposes significant changes to how the Competition and Markets Authority operates. These include shifting key Phase 2 merger decisions from independent panels to CMA Board sub-committees and expanding ministerial oversight of CMA guidance. The reforms follow a period of intense political scrutiny of the CMA, including the replacement of its chair in January 2025 with a former Amazon executive and a year in which the CMA approved every single merger it reviewed.
Nick Henderson-Mayo, Head of Compliance at compliance eLearning and software provider, VinciWorks, said the reforms signal a fundamental change in how companies should assess competition risk.
“This consultation is being framed as a technical fix to speed up decisions and unlock growth. In reality, it changes the environment in which those decisions are made. Companies will now have to consider political priorities alongside legal and economic analysis.”
With legislation to enact the changes expected later this year, VinciWorks warns that compliance teams will need to reassess the factors that can trigger CMA scrutiny and influence how M&A proposals are viewed. High-profile deals and market investigations that attract public attention risk becoming political footballs, particularly if ministers are pressured to utilise their broader interventionist powers.
Henderson-Mayo cautioned that a system designed to promote growth could have the opposite effect.
“A regime intended to support growth can end up increasing risk if businesses are forced to factor in political pressure, media narratives and activist campaigns alongside the law. That is a very different compliance landscape from the one companies have been operating in.”
The proposed law change follows sustained criticism from ministers that the CMA was too tough and insufficiently aligned with the Government’s agenda.
“The ouststing of the CMA chair in 2025 and the subsequent run of cleared mergers sent a powerful signal to the market that competition enforcement does not sit outside politics,” said Henderson-Mayo. “These proposals risk turning that signal into a structural feature of the system.”
Regardless of whether the reforms succeed in boosting growth, VinciWorks warns that firms may face increased volatility as competition enforcement becomes more politically exposed. Boardrooms may need to prepare for a new reality in which the views of ministers, media coverage and activist pressure can shape regulatory outcomes as much as balance sheets and market data.
“If a merger becomes a political story, the regulatory risk profile changes overnight,” said Henderson-Mayo.”
VinciWorks is advising organisations that may be affected by changes to the CMA’s powers to consider responding formally before the consultation closes on 31 March 2026.
