Competition/Antitrust

Our competition team has grown substantially in recent times, which has allowed us to strengthen and enhance our existing practice across the board, offering our clients a comprehensive range of advice and expertise. We cover all aspects of EU and UK competition law including merger control, antitrust litigation, cartels and investigations, state aid, compliance and other behavioural advice.

Having been involved in some of the most ground-breaking cases that have shaped the way in which competition law is enforced in the UK today, our insight and expertise gives assurance to our clients when navigating these sensitive matters.

The team now has over 20 lawyers, including those based in our office in Brussels. Some of the sectors in which we have particularly strong expertise are pharmaceuticals, financial services, media & telecoms, consumer and betting & gaming. In relation to the pharmaceuticals sector, we are involved in a significant proportion of cases currently before the CAT.

Our clients look to us for guidance on business critical matters. For instance, we regularly advise clients in relation to “dawn raids”, where they are being raided by the regulatory authorities. Some of the areas we typically provide advice to clients include:

cartels and anti-competitive agreements;
abuse of dominance;
competition complaints to regulatory authorities;
competition investigations, including leniency applications;
market studies and investigations;
competition litigation, including appealing regulatory decisions, standalone action and follow-on claims;
merger control, including advising interested third parties and opposing mergers;
state aid;
public and utilities procurement;
compliance programmes, training and audit;
joint ventures, strategic alliance and collaborative arrangements;
competition issues in distribution, licensing and franchising; and
regulated industry matters.

Expertise:

Recent work

Ladbrokes

Advising Ladbrokes on its merger with Coral, the largest ever retail merger in the UK (by reference to number of shops).

RBS

Advising RBS in respect of a number of competition investigations in the EU and multiple other jurisdictions worldwide.

Dixons Carphone

Advising Dixons Carphone in relation to the CMA merger control review for the merger of BT and EE, and in relation to the European Commission’s Phase 2 investigation into the merger of H3G and O2 under the EU Merger Regulation.

Prysmian

Advising Prysmian defending claims before the High Court by National Grid, Scottish Power and Vattenfall arising from the alleged power cables cartel.

Visa Europe

Advising Visa Europe in relation to the anti-trust aspects of its acquisition by Visa Inc., including during the merger control proceedings before the European Commission.

e2V technologies plc

Advising e2v technologies plc in connection with the merger control aspects of its acquisition by Teledyne Technologies Inc.

Freightliner

Advising Freightliner in relation to the merger control aspects of its acquisition of Pentalver Transport.

Mylan

Advising Mylan in connection with the investigations by the European Commission and the CMA in relation to patent settlement agreements in the pharmaceutical sector.

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