The Covid-19 pandemic and the measures adopted by national authorities to contain it have already caused an economic downturn and put numerous businesses in difficulty.

Merger reviews by the Commission and national competition authorities will take these consequences into account, under certain specific circumstances, and companies must be aware of this: indeed, the UK Amazon’s acquisition of a minority stake in Deliveroo has been provisionally cleared because the latter would otherwise exit the market amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our Competition/Antitrust Practice, in collaboration with our Covid-19 Task Force, broke down the above issues in the document available here.