This guidance forprovides mergingadvice businessesand general information to companies and their advisers setson outthe howCompetition theand CMAMarkets usesAuthority’s interim(CMA) measuresuse of Interim Measures and derogations in merger investigations, including the: 

• circumstances in which the CMA will require interimInterim measures Measures 

• form that interimInterim measuresMeasures will typically take 

• types of derogations that the CMA is likely (or unlikely) to grant 

• timing for imposing and revoking interimInterim measures,Measures and granting derogations 

This

2 January 2025: revised guidance waspublished 

The updatedrevised toguidance reflectreflects the changes to the mergers regime broughtmade aboutby the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA24) which commenced on 1 January 2025 as well as recent developments and current practice. 

The revised guidance takes effect on 1 January 2025. 

The parts of the revised guidance dealing with dealing with penalty powers introduced by the DMCCA24 (paragraphs 7.7 to 7.10) are subject to the transitional provisions in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (Commencement No.1 and Savings and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/1226). The new penalty powers in relation to the supply of false or misleading information in the context of Interim Measures will only apply to false or misleading information supplied to the CMA on or after 1 January 2025. The new penalty powers in relation to breaches of Interim Measures will apply to undertakings and orders accepted/made on or after 1 January 2025.  

Templates

The initialInitial enforcement order template is used by the CMA as the basis for interim orders made by it under the Enterprise Act 2002 (as amended) in relation to completed mergers.

MergingThe businessesderogation request template should usebe theused derogationby requestmerging templateparties as a basis for the proposed consent letter granting the derogation that would be issued by the CMA.

Updated to reflect changes to the mergers regime brought about by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.