The Freshfields Podcast

In this episode of our Essential Antitrust Asia, Freshfields’ senior associate Laurent Bougard speaks to Ninette Dodoo, a partner of the firm’s Beijing office and head of the China antitrust team, as well as Hazel Yin, an antitrust partner of RuiMin Law Firm in China.

Topics discussed by our speakers include:

• Latest development in China’s antitrust regime and enforcement trends;

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has delivered the Spring Budget 2023.

Following the instability experienced in the UK in recent months, it was a relief to many to see the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) confirm that ‘the economic and fiscal outlook in the UK has brightened somewhat’ since the Autumn Statement 2022 was delivered last November.  That is not to say, though, that the UK economy was given a clean bill of health: the OBR also recognised that ‘weak underlying momentum’ remained, fuelled by high gas prices, stagnating business investment, rising labour market inactivity and slowing productivity growth.  Against that background, it is perhaps no surprise that the Chancellor used this Spring Budget to introduce a range of measures – some headline-grabbing, others more subtle – designed to bring about ‘long term, sustainable, healthy growth’.

In our latest podcast, London Tax partners Helen Buchanan and Paul Davison and London Tax senior associate Josh Critchlow discuss some of the business tax measures they found the most noteworthy in the Spring Budget 2023, including:

• Confirmation that the increase in the main rate of corporation tax from 19% to 25% from 1 April 2023 will go ahead as planned;

The EU has a brand new tool to police subsidies from non-EU governments. It gives the European Commission power to review M&A deals and public procurement bids, as well as initiate investigations. Companies potentially affected need already now to set up internal information gathering, and to factor the new rules into deal feasibility assessments and timelines. 

In 2023 antitrust enforcement will continue to respond to calls for it to do more to address a range of global crises and social concerns. Authorities are being given enhanced powers and new tools, and are tackling novel kinds of cases, which is significantly increasing unpredictability.

In this first episode of 2023, podcast host Jenn Mellott is joined by partners Jamillia Ferris (Washington, D.C.), Sharon Malhi (London) and Tone Oeyen (Brussels) to talk about our antitrust forecast for the months ahead, and to identify the most crucial issues for businesses to watch in the coming year.

In this episode of our MedTech podcast series, Freshfields Partner Vinita Kailasanath and Stacy Hostetler, Co-Leader of Egon Zehnder’s Medical Technology Practice discuss the convergence between tech and life sciences, diversity in the industry ecosystem and whether you should have a sponsor or a mentor.

Over the past several years, cartel enforcement actions appear to have been on the decline. Despite this, antitrust enforcers have made clear that they have no intention to ease up enforcement efforts and, in fact, have indicated a renewed commitment to aggressive enforcement – as illustrated by a recent spike in dawn raids, including of private homes, in Europe and several initiatives by the Biden Administration in the US.

In this latest episode of our Essential Antitrust podcast our host Jenn Mellott is joined by Ramya Arnold, senior associate in London, Dominic Divivier, senior associate in Duesseldorf, and Angela Landry, counsel in Washington DC and Silicon Valley, to discuss what enforcers in Europe and the US are focused on in their pursuits.

In this episode of our MedTech podcast series, Freshfields partners Vinita Kailasanath and Theresa Ehlen sit down with Gloria Seibert – Founder and CEO of Temedica – to discuss the future of digital health innovations and to reflect on Gloria’s own experiences as a founder and entrepreneur in the MedTech industry.

The UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has delivered the much anticipated Autumn Statement 2022 following a period of political and economic instability in the UK.

The Autumn Statement 2022 comes at a difficult time for the UK economy with inflation at its highest rate for decades and a significantly increased budget deficit forecast. In view of this, the Chancellor has made clear that both spending cuts and increased tax revenues are required to reduce the “fiscal black hole”.

In our latest podcast, London Tax partners Paul Davison and Jill Gatehouse and London Tax senior associate Josh Critchlow discuss the business tax measures they found the most noteworthy in the Autumn Statement 2022, including: 

• Changes to the Energy Profits Levy – the windfall tax on oil and gas companies enacted in Summer 2022;

US antitrust authorities have taken a more aggressive stance on merger enforcement, suing to block deals rather than looking for tailored fixes. After facing several defeats in US courts during September 2022, what does this new trend really mean for deal strategy?

In this latest episode of our Essential Antitrust podcast our host Jenn Mellott is joined by Jamillia Ferris and Julie Elmer, antitrust partners in Washington DC, and Martin McElwee, antitrust partner in London and Brussels, to discuss the implications of merger challenges brought by US agencies for both US-focused deals and deals that face broader international scrutiny. 

“Activists are not creatures of trends or habits, necessarily, but are reactive to the market, society and where they fit in.”

In this episode of our Great (stakeholder) expectations series, Freshfields’ Elizabeth Bieber and Pamela Marcogliese and FTI Consulting’s Patrick Tucker and Garrett Muzikowski discuss the shareholder activism developments coming out of the past proxy season, expectations for future activism levels, new vulnerability points for companies, the potential impact of universal proxy, and ESG activism.

The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, Inc., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals.

FTI Consulting, Inc., including its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a consulting firm and is not a certified public accounting firm or a law firm.