Brexit and the Prospects for Competition Law from a Global Perspective

One of the most unexpected incidents in 2016 will be the outcome of the Brexit referendum. The referendum may influence not only the overall legal regimes, including competition regimes, in the EU but also the competition regimes in other countries. In particular, Korean firms should be aware of the future implementations of competition laws both of the EU and the UK, as the existing one-stop-shop type of applications of EU law by the European Commission will not be possible when the Brexit procedure has been completed. For example, when its merger with others reaches merger control thresholds in both regimes, it should give notifications to them, which brings extra costs. In effect, EU competition law has played an important role of ensuring economic integration in the EU, thereby leading social and political integration; EU law has become an important integral part of the laws of Member States. Furthermore, its success has become an example for harmonisation of global competition regime. The tradition of supremacy principle in the EU, by means of management of interdependence between Member States, has provided a leeway of convergence in Europe, and it eventually has led to a globalised convergence in the developing world, particularly of competition law area. However, the failure of the EU regime may influence the convergence or harmonisation of competition law in the developing world. At this moment, it may be a little bit early to predict the heavy evolution of UK competition law, departing from the EU competition regime. However, it is not difficult to expect that the UK rules will not change significantly. In sum, it is possible that Brexit can distort the harmonisation efforts of globalisation of competition rules and cause unnecessary costs of multinational enterprises' business in Europe and burden of extra administrative costs on the enforcement agencies.