Telecoms

We help private sector companies and regulators navigate this evolving picture by giving pragmatic advice on all aspects of competition law, including investigations and agreements, regulatory issues, joint ventures and mergers. 

• Our firm has a reputation for its involvement in the leading issues in the industry and we have acted in some of the biggest cases in the European courts such as Slovak Telecom vs European Commission, which is a leading abuse of dominance case on margin squeeze issues that went to the Court of Justice of the European Union. 

• We regularly advise companies who are under investigation by competition authorities and telecoms regulators, and also companies who have been harmed by other companies’ conduct, helping to steer you through matters that could have a significant impact on your business for years to come.  

• In the mergers field, our team has worked for regulators on the leading cases in the industry such as BT/EE and Hutchison 3G/O2 in the UK. We also work for the merging parties, making sure you get the merger clearances you need by the time you need them. We are often quoted in the media such at the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, the BBC and Politico on merger control issues. 

• We have acted as expert witnesses in arbitrations and litigation proceedings, for example in relation to the determination of royalty rates in patent litigation. 

• We work with our clients to design informative and engaging competition law compliance programmes, drawing on our experience as former regulators to bring the training to life.  

• Our team has developed expertise on the application of competition rules to the licensing of standard-essential patents (SEPs). 

Our firm’s expertise, in-depth knowledge and experience can help guide businesses through the entire lifecycle of these issues, from initial strategizing and influencing the drafting of the rules through to regulatory investigations and finally damages litigation. 

We can help you to ensure that you comply with competition law, defend you when under investigation, or object to competition law violations by others. We can help to guide you through the merger control process for your acquisition or joint venture.

Our team has long-standing expertise on telecoms issues. We have worked on both the regulator side and the private sector side and can therefore see the bigger picture. Damien Geradin is a member of the Commission Expert Group on SEP licensing and valuation.