Practice Areas
Competition and Regulation

Competition law is becoming increasingly important for your business regardless of your size, location or sector.

The UK's Office of Fair Trading and the European Commission have over the past years significantly increased their enforcement activities. The OFT is currently investigating price fixing allegations of milk, tobacco, financial and industrial products while the European Commission investigated such allegations in respect of chemicals, bananas or airline tickets amongst others.

Where competition law is breached, businesses face a growing risk of damages claims over and above the risk of enforcement action. This creates both opportunities and challenges for your organisation.

Our Competition Group is well placed to work with you to develop effective strategies and solutions:

Preventative training seeks to reduce the risk of competition law breaches and to prepare you for the case that investigators arrive at your reception.
Audit investigations seek to detect any potential or suspected breaches either within your organisation or that in one of your competitors or suppliers. We can then advise you how best to deal with them and we have we have significant experience in dealing with the relevant competition authorities or sectoral regulators.
Investigatory defence and litigation. We provide a full range of advice and assistance if your business is investigated and to defend you against claims for damages. We have significant experience in dealing with the relevant competition authorities or sectoral regulators and can represent you in any proceedings with such authorities.
Redress. We advise in the recovery of damages where your suppliers, customers or your competitors have breached competition laws.
Transactional counselling. We provide tailored advice and competition assessments for specific transactions and business deals with the aim of reducing any competition exposure.

Click here for full details of our competition and regulation services