Antitrust and competition

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Legal 500, 2010

Our antitrust and competition group supports clients in the energy sector on all areas of antitrust and competition law across the world. We have a team of over 80 competition specialists across our global network.

Our group has a significant practice in the energy and utilities sectors, advising large oil and gas companies, utilities and governments on all aspects of antitrust, competition and regulatory, state aid and public procurement rules.

Competition issues remain at the forefront of energy companies’ and utilities' concerns. We recognise the strategic nature of advice in this area, and have a genuine understanding of the key issues affecting our clients’ business to ensure that our advice is effective and commercial.

Our team includes staff who have worked within governmental authorities, allowing us to offer better insight to our clients on the policies and priorities of the regulators.

What we offer you

We offer the very highest quality of legal advice in a variety of critical areas including:

Antitrust/competition investigations

We have extensive experience on competition/antitrust regimes across the globe and are able to provide expert advice and representation before regulators on cartel rules as well as issues relating to control of monopoly power. We understand how important it is for our clients to avoid the severe penalties, not to mention the adverse publicity and reputational risk, involved in the infringement of competition and antitrust rules.

Antitrust/competition litigation

Private civil actions – whether individual or class actions – seeking damages for alleged competition and antitrust violations now routinely follow investigations launched by competition authorities in many jurisdictions. Our litigators have leading experience on some of the largest and most complex domestic and cross-border competition class actions.

Antitrust/competition law compliance

The level of competition law scrutiny has continued to increase around the world with the development of an international network of national competition authorities. We provide our clients with numerous training and audit tools in order to ensure they are up to date and protected, and have the appropriate competition law compliance programs and business culture in place.

Merger control

Competition law issues arising in M&A transactions can often be deal-breaking. Achieving competition clearances in significant cases may call for complex and high profile dialogue with competition regulators within tight timetables. Our lawyers regularly advise on competition law aspects and/or obtain merger control clearance for transactions in many jurisdictions. We have a sound understanding of the complex legal and economic issues involved, as well as familiarity with the relevant competition authorities and processes.

Foreign investment review

Certain jurisdictions require that significant foreign investments be reviewed for net benefit or national interest considerations, especially in sensitive sectors such as energy-related industries. Our group has broad experience in handling major transactions and in dealing with governments on these delicate issues.