The prospect of Brexit raises complex issues of policy in many areas of public life, and competition law is no exception. Many of the key questions in this field have been set out in the comprehensive issues paper published by the Brexit Competition Law Working Group (BCLWG).
 
Oxera submitted a response to the BCLWG issue paper which provides an economic perspective on three of the issues:

• the economic consequences of applying non-competition concerns to merger decisions;
• the potential for policy movement towards effects-based analysis in the UK;
• demands on the CMA’s resources and the necessary prioritisation of CMA activities after Brexit.

Consistent with the approach taken in the BCLWG issues paper, we focus on the scenario in which the UK leaves the EEA (sometimes referred to as ‘hard’ Brexit).