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CMA wins merger appeal

12/04/24

Yesterday the Court of Appeal (the Chancellor, Green and Snowden LJJ) dismissed an appeal by Cérélia, the UK’s largest producer of bake-at-home products, against a decision of the CMA to block the merger between Cérélia and a rival supplier, Jus-Rol.

The Court held that the CMA did not act irrationally in finding that the merged firm would not be kept sufficiently constrained by Bells and Henglein, two other suppliers of bake-at-home products (such as puff pastry dough, croissant dough and pizza dough).

The judgment is of particular interest in considering when the CMA is entitled to extend the timetable for completing its merger investigations for “special reasons”. The Court of Appeal held that what amounts to “special” will be fact and context specific. The Court was satisfied that the CMA had special reasons to extend time in this particular case.

Cérélia intends to apply to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal.

The judgment is here

Mark Hoskins K.C. appeared for Cérélia (instructed by Wilkie Farr & Gallagher (UK) LLP).

Prof. David Bailey appeared for the CMA (instructed by the CMA Legal Service).