The EU and Competition Team deals with all aspects of competition law and State Aid Rules on a full-service basis. The Team also has the capability, working with the firm's associated Brussels office, to deal with any issue arising from EU law.
The Teams main areas of operation and expertise are:-
Competition Law Compliance
The Team has assisted numerous organisations in ensuring that they comply with UK and EU anti-trust rules. This has included designing and implementing compliance programmes for clients such as Go-Ahead, Arriva, CE Electric and Formica.
Defence Work
The Team has defended clients in a number of competition law investigations. This included acting on the first ever dawn raid under the Competition Act 1998. The Team also conducted a successful defence for a client in relation to a replica football kit investigation.
Market Investigations
The Team has acted for clients who have been required to give evidence to regulators in industry-wide investigations. Such investigations are a relatively recent development in competition law. The Team has acted for clients giving evidence in European Commission investigations into payment card systems and the commercial supply of electricity and gas.
Mergers
The Team has extensive experience of advising on merger clearance applications, both at EU and UK levels. The Team recently acted on an application to refer merger proceedings from the EU back to the UK; one of only a handful of times this has been done. In addition to acting for applicants, the Team has represented interested third parties making comments on proposed mergers.
State Aids
The Team has experience of advising all parties affected by State aids. This includes recipients, grantors and affected third parties. The Team has been involved in the creation of regional “gap funds” utilising structural fund monies. Such funds involve potential aid to a number of involved parties, and must be assessed to ensure they are consistent with EU law principles.
Commercial Agreements Arrangements
Part of the Team’s preventative work involves advising clients on the competition law implications of proposed arrangements/agreements. This can range from proposed structural joint ventures to simple distribution agreements.