Addleshaw Goddard has successfully advised JD Sports Fashion plc on the merger control aspects of its acquisition of Go Outdoors, which received unconditional Phase 1 clearance by the CMA this week.

The Addleshaw Goddard team was led by competition partner Bruce Kilpatrick and included Michael Speer.

Commenting on the result, Bruce Kilpatrick said: "Following on from advising on the corporate transaction last year, we are delighted to have achieved this result for JD Sports. The case has important implications for the retail sector and is potentially an important precedent for how the CMA approaches retail mergers in the future."

– ENDS –

Notes to editors

Our competition team deals in high profile merger control and competition litigation. We act on many of the leading antitrust investigations in the UK (CMA and sectorial regulators), including the first ever CA98 investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority and the CMA's flagship investigation into the retail banking market;

Our work covers:

• Merger control: (i) William Hill on the Ladbrokes/Coral merger; (ii) Bregal Capital / Whittan Storage on the acquisition of Lion Steel; (iii) Tate & Lyle on the further reorganisation of its Eaststarch JV with Archer Daniels Midland;
• Competition litigation: (i) acting for Delta in the copper fittings follow-on damages action (£465m claim – Court of Appeal judgment on contribution proceedings); (ii) acting for NKT Cables in the high voltage cables follow on damages action;
• Antitrust: (i) Ultra Finishing Group Ltd on the settlement of the CMA's Competition Act case into the bathroom fittings sector; (ii) Manchester Airports Group on a major CAA investigation in respect of the provision of car parking services at East Midlands airport (the first ever CAA antitrust investigation);
• Market investigations: we continue to represent clients in a range of market investigation references, including advising a major international bank in the retail banking inquiry. We are also advising two clients on the CMA's recently announced market study into digital comparison tools;
• State aid: advising National Nuclear Laboratories Ltd on its participation in the UK-China Joint Research and Innovation Centre;
• Regulated utility sectors: we advise clients in the water sector (Ofwat, as well as United Utilities and South East Water), the transport sector and telecoms/post and energy;
• Payment systems: In the payments sector we have advised financial services clients on the FCA's credit cards market study, an acquirer and four large credit card issuers on the application of the EU interchange fee regulation and a number of merchants on the impact of forthcoming card surcharging rules under the second payment services directive.