Merger Control and Public Policy

Event Summary

A lecture by Martin Coleman on Merger Control and Public Policy. Martin will discuss how effective merger control contributes to achieving public policy objectives and will consider some issues relating to the operation of U.K. merger control since EU exit.

Biography

Martin Coleman is a non-executive member of the CMA Board and chairs the CMA’s Panel of independent experts who investigate phase 2 mergers, conduct market investigations and hear appeals from the decisions of economic regulators. Martin has chaired some of the most high profile CMA merger inquiries in recent years including Microsoft - Activision, Sabre- Farelogix and Cargotec-Konecranes. He is part of the CMA’s leadership team overseeing the introduction of new phase 2 merger inquiry processes and, as a member of the CMA Board, he has been closely involved in planning for the introduction of new powers under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumer Bill.

Martin was previously global head of competition at Norton Rose Fulbright where he advised global businesses on competition and market issues.

He also currently serves as deputy chair of the Office for Students, the regulator for higher education in England, and is a quondam fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. He is a former member of the Economic and Social Research Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The event will be chaired by: Professor Richard Whish KC, King's College London.

Richard Whish is Emeritus Professor of Law at King’s College London; in 2014 he was appointed KC Honoris Causa. He was a non-executive director of the Office of Fair Trading in the UK from 2003 to 2009, and a non-executive director of the Singaporean Energy Markets Authority from 2005 to 2011. He is the co-author, with David Bailey, of Competition Law, 10th edition 2021 (OUP), and the author of many other books, articles, case-notes and book reviews on various aspects of international competition law and policy.