Companies operating in the European Union and United Kingdom can find themselves in the crosshairs of competition regulators if they share competitively sensitive information (CSI) in public statements, McGuireWoods London partner Matthew Hall wrote in a Nov. 4, 2025, article in the international edition of Law.com.
Most companies know that exchanging CSI with competitors can violate European and U.K. law, but information exchange can be illegal even if done “indirectly or one-way,” Hall wrote. He described a recent case involving public announcements by several pharmaceutical companies active in the U.K. Three U.K. campaigning groups complained to the Competition and Markets Authority, the U.K.’s main competition and consumer protection regulator, alleging the companies exchanged CSI via the announcements. This is often called public signalling. CMA regulators declined to investigate, but the allegations and the “reporting of them would have been uncomfortable for the companies involved,” Hall wrote.
“A company may have to respond proactively to protect itself if it detects public announcements by competitors,” Hall wrote. “It can reduce the risk by publicly distancing itself from the exchange or by reporting it to the regulator as a whistleblower.”