CAT upholds fine imposed on Electro Rent for breach of interim order – enforcement in gun jumping cases remains a priority

On 11 February 2019 the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) upheld the CMA's first infringement decision for breach of an interim order imposed on a completed merger under investigation. Electro Rent had served a break notice on the lease of its UK premises without first seeking the CMA's consent and was fined £100,000 in June 2018. The CAT dismissed Electro Rent's appeal on the basis that a reasonable person would not have believed that this conduct would not be in breach of the interim order imposed.

Earlier this year the CMA imposed a fine of £300,000 on Ausurus and its subsidiary European Metal Recycling for two separate breaches of an interim order imposed in the context of its acquisition of Metal & Waste Recycling Limited. Electro Rent was also fined a second time, £200,000, for yet another breach of the interim order, this time for having appointed its CFO as director of the target company without the CMA's prior consent. The CMA is clearly stepping up its enforcement of interim orders, which it sees as "vital to the UK merger process", and other competition authorities around the world are similarly taking a strict approach to gun-jumping offences.

Read the full briefing here.

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