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Brussels 15th April – EU commission Issues Supplementary Statement of Objections to Meta.
The EU Commission announced that it had sent a Supplementary Statement of Objections to Meta setting out the Commission’s intention to order it to reinstate third-party AI assistants’ access to WhatsApp under the same conditions as before its policy change of 15th October 2025. The Commission originally issued a Statement of Objections to Meta on 9th February (see above). Meta announced modifications to its access arrangements on 4th March 2026. In its Supplementary Statement of Objections, the Commission stated that it had assessed Meta’s decision to re-instate access to WhatsApp for third-party AI assistants subject to the payment of a fee. The Commission has preliminarily found that this policy is in effect equivalent to the previous access ban. The Commission alleges Meta’s conduct risks blocking competitors from entering or expanding in the rapidly growing market for AI assistants. The Commission stated that it intends to impose interim measures to prevent these policy changes from causing serious and irreparable harm on the market, subject to Meta’s reply and rights of defence. The interim measures would remain in place until the Commission finishes its investigation and reaches a final decision on Meta’s conduct.
Dublin March 23rd – Public Consultation on merger notification thresholds.
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) is seeking views in relation to proposals to increase the thresholds at which Mergers and Acquisitions must be notified to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). Currently mergers must be notified to, and approved by, the CCPC, if the aggregate turnover in the State of the undertakings involved is not less than €60m, and the turnover in the State of each of 2 or more of the undertakings involved is not less than €10m. According to the announcement, the CCPC has requested the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to increase the thresholds to an aggregate turnover of €100m and an individual turnover of €15m. The thresholds were last amended in January 2019.
The cumulative rate of inflation over the period 2019 to 2025 was 22.1%. Thus an increase in the thresholds to €73m and €12m respectively would have been sufficient to compensate for inflation over the period. According to the Department, the CCPC indicated that 42.5% of mergers notified between 2019 and 2024 fell below the proposed new notification thresholds. The proposal therefore represents a very significant loosening of merger policy at a time when many commentators have argued that merger policy in many OECD countries is already too lax resulting in a significant reduction in competition. The proposal fails to recognise that firms will adjust their behaviour to changes in the rules. Evidence from the US indicates that increased merger notification thresholds resulted in an increase in anti-competitive mergers below the higher thresholds. In other words the increased thresholds prompted firms to conclude anti-competitive mergers which they would not have attempted previously as they were unlikely to be cleared by the antitrust agencies. The Consultation notes that the CCPC now has power to call in mergers which fall below the notification thresholds. The proposal seems to be placing quite a heavy reliance on the effectiveness of such powers to deter anti-competitive mergers.
Dublin March 20th – CCPC calls in Uniphar/TouchStore Merger.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission announced that it had “called in” the acquisition of TouchStore Limited by healthcare services provider, Uniphar plc for review. The acquisiton was announced by Uniphar in January. This is the first time the CCPC has availed of the power to call in a merger that it believes may affect competition which falls below the mandatory merger notification thresholds.
Uniphar is one of two full line pharmaceutical wholesalers in Ireland. It is also heavily involved at the retail level as it owns a number of retail outlets and is also involved in franchise networks and buying groups. It owns the Allcare Pharmacy, Hickey’s Pharmacy and McCauley Health and Beauty brands. The CCPC descrbed TouchStore as a Limerick-based company that provides dispensing and retail management software to pharmacies across Ireland.
The CCPC stated that it had decided that the acquisition needed to be notified in order to examine its potential effect on competition. It said that it would review whether owning TouchStore’s software would raise competition concerns in the wholesale pharmaceutical supply, pharmacy software and/or retail pharmacy sectors in Ireland.
Brussels 9th February – EU Commission Issues Statement of Objections to Meta.
The European Commission announced that it issued a Statement of Objections setting out its preliminary view that Meta breached EU antitrust rules by excluding third party Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) assistants from accessing and interacting with users on WhatsApp. According to the Commission, Meta’s conduct risks blocking competitors from entering or expanding in the rapidly growing market for AI assistants. The Commission announced that it intends to impose interim measures to prevent serious and irreparable harm on the market.
On 15th October 2025, Meta announced an update of its WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, effectively banning third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the application. As a result, since 15th January 2026, the only AI assistant available on WhatsApp is Meta’s own tool, Meta AI, while competitors have been excluded. The Commission stated that it has informed Meta that this policy change appears at first sight to be in breach of EU competition rules.
Dublin 24th January – CCPC Investigating Pricing Arrangements for small electrical retail appliances.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) announced that it is investigating suspected anti-competitive behaviour in the small electric appliances sector. According to the CCPC announcement, the investigation relates to a suspected case of resale price maintenance (RPM) between a manufacturer, a distributor, and multiple retailers operating in Ireland. RPM occurs when a supplier seeks to control the price at which a product is resold, potentially restricting competition in the downstream retail market to the detriment of consumers.
The statement indicated that the CCPC had conducted an unannounced inspection –“dawn raid” – at the premises of an Irish-based distributor back in June 2025. In collaboration with the German Competition Authority (Bundeskartellamt), an unannounced inspection was also carried out at the premises of a manufacturer based in Germany in November 2025. The CCPC stated that authorised CCPC officers supported the Bundeskartellamt during this operation.
The investigation is being carried out under the CCPC’s new competition law enforcement powers, which came into effect in September 2023. The CCPC stated that it had also issued formal requests for information to several retailers active in Ireland.
Dublin 12th January – CCPC Publishes Annual 2025 Merger Report.
The report provides an overview of the CCPC’s merger activities during 2025. The prompt publication of the report is welcome. 90 mergers were notified to the CCPC during 2025, up almost 10% of 2024 and 32% up on the 2023 total. Of the 90 merger notifications received during 2025, 63 were made under the simplified merger notification procedure (SMNP), although 3 of these notifications were subject to requirements for further information (RFIs) and thus reverted to the standard merger review process. The CCPC issued 91 Merger Determinations in 2025, of which 79 were in respect of mergers notified during that year while the remaining 12 related to cases carried over from 2024.
The CCPC issued requests for information (RFIs) in respect of 15 notified mergers during the course of the year. 9 cases were subject to an extended Phase 1 investigation while 6 cases went to Phase 2. 5 cases were cleared subject remedies and in 1 case the CCPC issued a formal Assessment to the parties outlining its preliminary concerns.
While the Report highlights the speedy decision times in SMNP and non-extended Phase 1 cases, it makes no mention of its repeated failure to publish Determinations within 60 working days of their being adopted as required by the legislation in a large number of cases.