Competition Law Enforcement Trends in the U.S., Europe and China: Looking Back at 2016 and Ahead to 2017

2016 was another year of active enforcement globally. It was also a year of big changes of uncertain impact. June saw the dramatic vote by the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union—a development which we do not expect will have concrete antitrust implications in 2017, given that the UK government has not yet formally started the “Brexit process,” which is expected to commence by this summer. In November, the United States elected a new President—one who ran a non-traditional, “outsiders” campaign that, among other things, raised questions about the U.S.’s continued commitment to free trade and sounded a populist alarm about consolidation in media.

This Alert provides a look back at certain major developments in 2016 and our view of what to look for in 2017.