Ireland: Antitrust/Competition Law

Ireland is raising the financial thresholds for mandatory merger control notifications from July 2026, increasing the combined Irish turnover requirement from €60 million to €100 million and the individual turnover threshold from €10 million to €15 million. This change follows recommendations from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and a public consultation process, with significant implications for transaction notification requirements and regulatory oversight.

Competition and Regulation partners at Matheson have authored the Ireland chapter of the Concurrences Foreign Direct Investment Guide, a comprehensive resource covering thirty jurisdictions that addresses the practical questions arising in M&A transactions where FDI review has become a transaction-critical issue. The guide examines how FDI review affects signing timelines, conditions precedent, risk allocation, and deal completion requirements.

The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism’s (AMLA) consultation on draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) under Article 28(1)...

On 2 June 2025, the European Commission imposed fines totalling €329 million on Delivery Hero and Glovo for their participation in a four-year cartel in the online food delivery sector.

Following commencement of the Competition (Amendment) Act 2022 ("2022 Act"), the enforcement powers of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ("CCPC")...

A new era has begun. From now on, Irish enforcers may recommend fines for EU and Irish competition rules breaches.

Ireland's proposed Media Regulation Bill introduces sweeping reforms to the country's media merger regime, expanding regulatory oversight to include social media platforms and streaming services while transferring assessment authority from ministerial to independent regulatory control. The legislation modernizes decades-old definitions of media businesses and implements new notification thresholds that could significantly increase the volume of transactions requiring regulatory approval.

On 2 October 2018, Minister Heather Humphries, the Minister for Business Enterprise and Innovation, signed the Competition Act 2002 (section 27) Order 2018.

The Irish competition regulator has this week cleared a media merger, subject to a behavioural remedy of ‘ring-fencing'.