Antitrust, Competition, and Trade Regulation
Our global Antitrust, Competition, and Trade Regulation practice assists clients with regulatory compliance, defending or pursuing litigation, and navigating domestic and cross-border transactions and foreign direct investments with regulatory authorities, to help clients minimize antitrust and competition law risks. We also provide guidance in pricing, distribution, and brand protection challenges.
We represent leading multinational corporations, growth and middle-market companies, capital market participants, trade associations, and entrepreneurs in every industry, as well as public sector entities, educational institutions, philanthropic organizations, and individuals. With numerous lawyers throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States, the practice is positioned in strategic markets to help clients leverage antitrust and competition laws.
We combine our regulatory knowledge with our understanding of industry trends and needs to provide representation and counsel in a number of areas including:
- Antitrust and competition law assessment
- Competition advocacy
- Consumer protection and false advertising
- Distribution structuring
- Enforcement actions
- International trade
- Litigation
- Mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures
- Online marketplace restrictions
- Regulatory compliance and counseling
- Resale pricing
Europe
Competition law plays an important role in the European economy and affects all aspects of doing business in Europe. With a strong bench of Antitrust, Competition, and Trade lawyers across Europe, we are able to assist clients operating in Europe in all matters impacted by competition law. Following is a high-level overview of the numerous service we provide.
Transactions
We have significant experience helping clients navigate the regulatory compliance requirements associated with large cross-border transactions. Our lawyers regularly appear before the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, the German Federal Cartel Office, the French Competition Authority, the Italian Competition Authority, and other national competition authorities around the world. Among our many services include substantive antitrust assessment, allocation of antitrust risk and SPA negotiations, and bringing antitrust challenges to notified transactions.
Foreign Direct Investment
Our lawyers support clients on foreign direct investment (FDI) screening regimes across the globe and provide strategic advice to minimize adverse effects of FDI screening mechanisms to a proposed transaction. Members of the team are admitted to practice in various member states within the European Union, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. We regularly file and interact with FDI authorities in numerous European and non-European countries.
Vertical Competition Law
Our team advises consumer and business-to-business product manufacturers on complex competition law compliance, as well as all on their distribution strategies across regions globally—from the design stage to implementation, monitoring, and enforcement. We assist on matters such as resale pricing, store and website criteria, online marketplace restrictions, partner termination, and more.
Competition Litigation
Combining technical knowledge with strategic advice, we are highly skilled at pursuing or defending claims on behalf of our clients before national courts across the United Kingdom and Europe before EU courts, US courts, and others. We conduct and coordinate multijurisdictional litigation for clients on matters such as cartel participation, breaches of competition law, and distribution strategies.
Internal Investigations
Our team offers full-service support for abuse of dominance in cartel investigations on a global basis—from managing dawn raids, to defending clients in competition proceedings, to EU appellate and private damages litigation. We have significant experience in traditional cartels as well as complex antitrust matters such as pay-for-delay cases, abuse of dominance cases, and collective boycotts.
Compliance
We help clients develop, implement, and optimize compliance systems, and provide compliance trainings tailored to our clients’ industry and business. We monitor legal and regulatory developments to ensure that the compliance system is and remains up to date.
ESG
We advise clients on ESG-related topics with a special focus on German and European Union legislation, by providing in-depth screenings of current governance structures and counsel on ESG approaches and changes to help avoid undue government, activist, or public scrutiny.
International Trade: CFIUS, Sanctions, and Export Controls
Consistently ranked National Tier 1 in Native American Law by U.S.News - Best Lawyers® "Best Law Firms"
National Tier 1 Ranking in Antitrust Law
Recognized by The Legal 500 as a top antitrust firm for mergers, acquisitions, and buyouts.
Recommended for European Union competition law services by The Legal 500 in the United Kingdom.
Our work in complex matters has been recognized in Chambers UK, Global Competition Review, and International Who's Who of Business Lawyers.
The team is known for being prominent in merger control, behavioural enforcement and regulatory issues, acting for significant clients in the construction, financial services, energy and resources, and pharmaceutical sectors, with additional expertise in the agribusiness, shipping and technology spaces. Frequently appears for international companies and individuals responding to ACCC cartel investigations and prosecutions, including those with concurrent proceedings in other jurisdictions, and increasingly active on behalf of clients seeking ACCC authorisation for legitimate instances of collective conduct.
