EU, competition and regulation

Our EU, competition and regulation team has in-depth experience in all aspects of the competition, state aid and public procurement rules, as well as expertise in general EU law as it applies to business and in various specific areas of EU regulation. 

At the core of our work is our advice to companies on how to ensure compliance with EU and UK competition law and how to structure transactions so as to minimise competition risk arising from non-compliance.  We help our clients to use competition law positively for competitive advantage, as well as for defensive purposes. We regularly represent clients in investigations by, and hearings before, the EU and UK competition authorities.  We frequently also obtain clearance of transactions from the relevant merger control authorities in countries throughout the world.  Team members have previously worked for the competition regulators and have hands-on experience of their processes and their approach to competition issues. 

We are also prominent and highly experienced in our advice to both the public sector and private sector on the application of the public procurement regime and the state aid rules.  We take a very practical approach to these issues, formulating advice to our clients that allows them to achieve their commercial objectives while observing their legal obligations.  We have a wealth of expertise not only in advising on the legal aspects of public procurement matters, but also in project managing complex procurements on behalf of our public sector clients. 

EU, competition and regulation

 We can advise you on:

• EU and UK competition law
• Cartel investigations
• Competition compliance programmes and audits 
• Advice on the obligations of dominant companies and representation in respect of abuse of dominance cases
• Competition law advice on commercial agreements, including agency, distribution, franchise and commercial joint ventures
• Competition litigation
• Merger control – including EU Merger Regulation notifications, notifications to the UK Office of Fair Trading under the Enterprise Act 2002, and multi-jurisdictional merger control
• State aid advice and complaints
• Public procurement advice and challenges
• Project management of public procurement exercises
• EU free movement advice
• UK and EU regulatory advice in areas including waste, healthcare, media and regulated utilities

EU, competition and regulation

The team's recent experience includes the following:

• Advised a private hospital group on competition concerns in the private healthcare market and subsequently on the OFT market study on private healthcare;
• Revised the dawn raid procedures for a major infrastructure company to ensure its readiness in the event of a raid by the competition regulators;
• Advised a number of retail and institutional landlords on the application of the competition rules to their land agreements, in particular as regards exclusivity provisions and restrictive covenants;
• Advised Waters Corporation on its European distribution arrangements, including agreements with new distributors, termination of existing arrangements and the application of both the competition rules and the commercial agency rules;
• Acted for C&C Group Plc on the competition law aspects of its acquisition of Tennent's and its acquisition of Gaymers Cider Company, including obtaining regulatory clearance from the Office of Fair Trading and advising on transactional and associated documentation;
• Advised Fossil, Inc. on the EU, German and UK merger control aspects of its acquisition of Skagen Designs;
• Advised the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) on the application of the state aid rules to its grants for innovation in the context of a wide range of NESTA projects;
• Assisted Sainsbury's Supermarkets Limited in assessing the application of the public procurement rules to a number of its development schemes and advising on the implications of the rules;
• Advised an international infrastructure company on a potential large scale public procurement challenge to two major contract awards;
• Project managed the award of eight major frameworks in accordance with the public procurement regime on behalf of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

EU, competition and regulation