Summary of Chatham House Competition Policy Conference 2025

27 January 2026

Competition policy is being re shaped by intensifying geopolitical pressures, strategic competition, and growing concerns around national and economic resilience. Regulators across major jurisdictions are integrating adjacent regimes in foreign subsidies control, FDI screening and digital market regulation while enforcement increasingly emphasises consumer protection amid inflation and cost of living strains.

Against this backdrop, the Chatham House Competition Policy Conference 2025 – sponsored by Clifford Chance and Charles River Associates - convened policymakers, regulators and business leaders to examine how frameworks should evolve to preserve contestable markets without sacrificing security, innovation or long-term productivity. The conference was hosted in person and held under the Chatham House Rule, with two on the record keynote addresses by Sarah Cardell (Chief Executive, CMA) and Dina Kallay (Deputy Assistant Attorney General, US DOJ).  Discussions explored the interaction of competition policy and industrial strategy, the merging of merger control with investment screening in strategic sectors, and the rise of ex ante and behavioural consumer protection tools that complement traditional antitrust enforcement in fast moving digital ecosystems. The prevailing view was pragmatic: competition remains the primary lens, with resilience integrated through clearer, contestable regulation, proportionate crisis interventions, and sustained investment in skills and innovation so markets become both robust and dynamic.  For a summary of the main points from the on record and anonymised sessions, click here.

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