⚖️ UK CMA Merger Outcome Watch

Clearances, referrals and prohibitions on CMA merger cases.

Output is one cma_case_record row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one cma case delta (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.75 per cma case delta plus one $0.10 source check per run that reads the source). Source: www.gov.uk.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run a9e2TTGaPcSwhGrYX on build 0.1.12 (2026-09-17), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

case_page	title	market_sector	opened_date	finding_status	parties
/cma-cases/mccormick-slash-unilever-merger-inquiry	McCormick / Unilever merger inquiry	food-manufacturing	2026-07-21	no-finding-investigation-open	["McCormick", "Unilever"]
/cma-cases/ocs-slash-mitie-merger-inquiry	OCS / Mitie merger inquiry	distribution-and-service-industries	2026-09-15	no-finding-investigation-open	["OCS", "Mitie"]
/cma-cases/seras-slash-enva-dedicated-waste-wood-business-merger-inqui	Seras / Enva (dedicated waste wood business) merger inquiry	distribution-and-service-industries	2026-04-21	merger-cleared-phase-1	["Seras", "Enva (dedicated waste wood business)"]
/cma-cases/co-operative-group-slash-southern-co-operative-merger-inqui	Co-operative Group / Southern Co-operative merger inquiry	retail-and-wholesale	2026-06-04	no-finding-investigation-open	["Co-operative Group", "Southern Co-operative"]
/cma-cases/eon-slash-ovo-merger-inquiry	E.ON / OVO merger inquiry	utilities	2026-07-08	no-finding-investigation-open	["E.ON", "OVO"]
/cma-cases/the-brinks-company-slash-ncr-atleos-corporation-merger-inqu	The Brink’s Company / NCR Atleos Corporation merger inquiry	financial-services	2026-05-20	no-finding-investigation-open	["The Brink’s Company", "NCR Atleos Corporation"]
/cma-cases/danone-slash-huel-merger-inquiry	Danone / Huel merger inquiry	food-manufacturing	2026-05-27	no-finding-recorded	["Danone", "Huel"]
/cma-cases/nrg-fleet-services-slash-specialist-fleet-services-merger-i	NRG Fleet Services / Specialist Fleet Services merger inquiry	distribution-and-service-industries	2026-08-10	no-finding-investigation-open	["NRG Fleet Services", "Specialist Fleet Services"]

The run finished with the status message: NORMAL: emitted 10 item(s)

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• record_key (string/null) — e.g. cma:/cma-cases/mccormick-slash-unilever-merger-inquiry
• case_page — e.g. /cma-cases/mccormick-slash-unilever-merger-inquiry
• case_url — e.g. https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/mccormick-slash-unilever-merger-inquiry
• title — e.g. McCormick / Unilever merger inquiry
• case_type — e.g. mergers
• case_state — e.g. open
• market_sector — e.g. food-manufacturing
• opened_date — e.g. 2026-07-21
• closed_date — e.g. 2026-09-03
• outcome_type — e.g. mergers-phase-1-clearance
• finding_status — e.g. no-finding-investigation-open
• states_adverse_finding — e.g. False
• parties — e.g. ["McCormick", "Unilever"]
• record_type (string) — e.g. cma_case_record
• delta_type (string/null) — null in every sample row
• delta_kinds (array/null) — null in every sample row

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "market_sectors": [],
  "state": "both",
  "max_items": 10,
  "watch_mode": false,
  "baseline_id": "default"
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 1 × $0.10 source-check + 0 × $0.75 cma-case-delta = $0.12 on the Free tier — snapshot preview rows are delivered unbilled; only the source check and the start fee were charged.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "market_sectors": [],
  "state": "both",
  "max_items": 5,
  "watch_mode": false,
  "baseline_id": "default"
}

Caps the run at 5 rows; same billing shape as the sample run above. state narrows what the source is asked for.

3. Watch mode on a schedule

{
  "market_sectors": [],
  "state": "both",
  "max_items": 10,
  "watch_mode": true,
  "baseline_id": "default"
}

The first run seeds a private baseline and emits zero deltas; every later run emits one row per change, billed at $0.75 each plus the $0.10 source check; billed deltas are capped at 500 per run.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run a9e2TTGaPcSwhGrYX, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "record_key": "cma:/cma-cases/mccormick-slash-unilever-merger-inquiry",
  "case_page": "/cma-cases/mccormick-slash-unilever-merger-inquiry",
  "case_url": "https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/mccormick-slash-unilever-merger-inquiry",
  "title": "McCormick / Unilever merger inquiry",
  "case_type": "mergers",
  "case_state": "open",
  "market_sector": "food-manufacturing",
  "opened_date": "2026-07-21",
  "closed_date": null,
  "outcome_type": null,
  "finding_status": "no-finding-investigation-open",
  "states_adverse_finding": false,
  "parties": [
    "McCormick",
    "Unilever"
  ],
  "record_type": "cma_case_record",
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "output_mode": "preview",
  "preview_cap": 25,
  "preview_truncated": 0
}

🔧 How it works

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent.

Charging. Each cma case delta is charged at the moment it is pushed (cma-case-delta); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count. One source-check is charged per run that actually read the source.

Source

gov.uk Search API, CMA case records (public, logged-out)

• https://www.gov.uk/api/search.json?filter_format=cma_case

Public, logged-out only — no API key, login, cookie or CAPTCHA.

The eight delta types

value	case family
merger-inquiry-open	a merger inquiry appears or opens
merger-outcome	a merger case gains an outcome or closes
consumer-enforcement	consumer-enforcement case movement
cartel-investigation	Competition Act, civil/criminal cartel and director-disqualification cases
digital-markets-status	Digital Markets Unit case movement
subsidy-referral	Subsidy Advice Unit referral movement
market-study	market study and market investigation movement
remedy-review	review of existing orders and undertakings

Leave delta_types empty for all eight. Every delta carries delta_kinds.

How this actor talks about investigations

An open Competition Act or cartel case is an investigation, not a finding. This actor is built so it cannot say otherwise:

• finding_status is read from an explicit map of every outcome value the CMA corpus contains. An unrecognised outcome reports no-finding-recorded-unmapped-outcome — it is never pattern-matched into a status.
• states_adverse_finding is true for exactly four published outcomes: Chapter I infringement, Chapter II infringement, a disqualification order granted, and a consumer-law court order.
• No party names are extracted from investigation or enforcement cases. Merger titles are structured, so merger parties are listed; a cartel case carries its title verbatim and an empty parties list.
• A criminal-cartel verdict is reported as a verdict. The source does not say which way it went, so neither does this actor.
• Commitments, undertakings, no-grounds-for-action and administrative-priorities closures all report explicitly as not findings.
• Investigation cases without a published adverse finding carry a language_note saying so.

Snapshot mode is a PREVIEW

watch_mode: false returns at most 25 records, hard-capped in code.

Watch semantics

First watch run seeds and emits zero deltas. Billed deltas capped at 500 per run. A truncated read suppresses REMOVED rather than reporting a case as withdrawn.

Terminal states

NORMAL · SUCCEEDED-0: GENUINE_EMPTY · SUCCEEDED-0 (no change) · PARTIAL · BLOCKED.

Run it WEEKLY, not daily

Schedule this Actor once a week. That is about your bill, not your coverage — a weekly run reads the same corpus and misses nothing.

The CMA docket is slow. Walking all 2,570 cases on 2026-07-27, every one of the six CMA watches measured under one delta per week, and most well under. A daily schedule pays seven source-check events a week for a source that moves two or three times a week across the whole docket — the check would be 70–80% of your bill and buy no extra signal.

This is a low-frequency, high-consequence feed. A merger prohibition or a Chapter I infringement finding moves share prices; it just does not happen on a Tuesday because you checked. Override the cadence if you have a reason to.

One delta type per Actor

This Actor watches merger-outcome and nothing else. The other delta types in this family are separate Actors, each with its own price and its own baseline — so you pay for the feed you want and no other.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

⏰ Set it on a schedule

A single run is a snapshot. The value is the feed: open the actor in Apify Console → Schedules → Create new, add this actor with input 3 above (watch_mode: true), and pick a cadence:

• Daily — 0 7 * * * (07:00 UTC): catch changes within a day.
• Weekly — 0 7 * * 1: a Monday digest.

The baseline persists in a named key-value store between runs, so every scheduled run compares against the last one; use a different baseline_id for independent watches. Schedules can also POST results to a webhook (Console → Integrations).

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Source check (source-check)	$0.10	$0.09	$0.08	$0.07
CMA Case Delta (cma-case-delta)	$0.75	$0.68	$0.60	$0.50

Worked at the live Free-tier price (watch mode, one delta per change):

• 8 cma case deltas: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 8 × $0.75 = $6.12
• 25 cma case deltas: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 25 × $0.75 = $18.87
• 200 cma case deltas: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 200 × $0.75 = $150.12

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee plus the $0.10 source check (the source was read and reported empty). A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 1024 MB.

Yield on the sample run: NORMAL: emitted 10 item(s). max_items is a hard ceiling on what is delivered and billed, never a target. Snapshot output is capped at 25 records regardless of the cap you set; watch mode is the full feed.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by www.gov.uk. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (www.gov.uk) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input (in watch mode the first run always seeds the baseline and returns zero deltas); BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee plus one source check.

Q: How many rows can one run return?
A: Up to max_items (default 200); snapshot previews stop at 25. Raise the cap for a bigger run; you pay per delivered row.

Q: What does watch mode remember between runs?
A: A private baseline of source-native record ids in a named key-value store (baseline_id names it, so several independent watches can coexist). Each later run diffs the live source against it and emits only changes.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs except the watch baseline. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other UK CMA case watches actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers www.gov.uk. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Status says CAPPED → your cap (max_items) was reached → raise it for a bigger run.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.
• First watch run shows no deltas → expected: it seeds the baseline; changes appear from the second run.

🔗 Related Actors

• WITHDRAWN 2026-07-27 - folded into market-study — WITHDRAWN 2026-07-27 - folded into market-study — one structured record per entity from the official public source, deduplicated, pay-per-record
• UK CMA Market Study & Investigation Watch — CMA market studies and market investigations as they open and progress
• UK CMA Merger Inquiry Opening Watch — New merger inquiries opened by the Competition and Markets Authority
• UK CMA Subsidy Control Referral Watch — Subsidy Advice Unit referrals and reports
• 🏢 About NexGenData — NexGen Watch is NexGenData's fleet of 256 public monitoring and lookup actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

⭐ Found this useful?

If this actor saved you a manual check, a quick review on the Apify Store helps other teams find it. Feature request or a source that changed? Open it from the Issues tab — every one is read.