Competition

Our lawyers provide guidance relating to the core elements of competition law, covering restrictive agreements, mergers and joint ventures, and on ‘abuse of a dominant position’ (by entities with significant market power). We also advise on related areas such as subsidy control (state aid), procurement law  and acquisitions and investments under the National Security and Investment Act 2021.

In relation to merger control and joint ventures, we offer advice on the application of UK merger control to planned acquisitions and mergers, and on the process of notification of a merger to the CMA for clearance, including the drafting of submissions, responding to CMA information requests, dealing with issues letters, and, where relevant, the consideration of undertakings in lieu.

Our experts act for many leading brands on their distribution strategies. This includes assisting clients on selective distribution systems (under which dealers are appointed conditional on their meeting relevant quality requirements ) as well as exclusive distribution. Part of our role involves advising brands on managing internt sales channels, which in recent years have been a focus for regulatory competition law enforcement.

We support clients on enforcement authority investigations and the financial and personal liability risks of breaching competition law obligations; including potential abuse of a dominant position, anti-competitive agreements/practices and potentially illicit cross-industry collaboration on regulatory issues of mutual concern. Additionally, we counsel on the increasingly significant risks of follow-on class action litigation by those affected by conduct which has been the subject of rulings establishing breach of competition law.

In subsidy control, we advise public authorities on the structuring and management of funding initiatives in compliance with the Subsidy Control Act 2022, the UK’s domestic subsidy control regime that replaced the EU state aid rules after the UK’s departure from the EU.

We also have extensive experience of assisting clients (whether acquirers, investors or target companies) in navigating the UK’s National Security and Investment Act 2021, including advising on the merits of voluntary notification for transactions such as the licensing of sensitive IP, managing the process of notification and clearance for transactions to which mandatory notification applies, and managing retrospective validation where necessary.