While dealmakers instantly welcomed last week’s decision by the Court of Appeal to reject the referral of ‘grey area’ mergers to the Competition Commission, regulatory lawyers are undoubtedly more circumspect about the implications of the ruling.

Three senior judges ruling on the £700m merger of health technology providers iSoft and Torex found that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) did not need to refer all contentious mergers to the Competition Commission for further investigation.