Our areas of expertise

We advise on all aspects of EU and national competition law, acting for companies across industry sectors, including broadcasting, sports, automotive, chemicals, heavy industry, and technology.

Our experience spans the full spectrum of vertical and horizontal cooperation, from distribution strategies and supply agreements to R&D collaborations, joint purchasing, and infrastructure sharing. We assist clients in ensuring that their agreements and practices comply with competition and consumer law, and we defend companies and individuals in investigations before the European Commission and national competition authorities. 

We assist companies targeted by ‘dawn raids’ – both on-site during the raids and in subsequent court proceedings challenging those raids. We also have extensive experience assisting clients prepare for interviews with regulators (whether compulsory or voluntary), handling requests for information, lodging procedural complaints and appeals, pursuing human rights challenges, addressing director disqualification proceedings, and mounting substantive defences.

We also act for clients seeking to challenge anti-competitive conduct by rival firms, suppliers, or customers, whether through complaints to regulators or follow-on litigation. Drawing on our experience as former regulators, we also design engaging and practical compliance programmes that help businesses foster a culture of compliance and minimise risk.

We support companies responding to market studies/investigations and sector inquiries, such as the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation into the veterinary sector. We can assist companies respond to market questionnaires or otherwise contribute with effective advocacy.

We have extensive experience acting for defendants and complainants in antitrust investigations by the European Commission and national competition authorities, such as the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as well as representing companies in high-stakes litigation in the EU Courts.

• Our firm acts in defence of several companies investigated by the EC for alleged antitrust infringements, for example: 

• We represented a company in the EC’s investigation into alleged no-poach arrangements in the data centre construction sector. 
• We acted for Corning in the EC’s investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices related to cover glass for handheld mobile devices (Case AT.40728), which was recently closed with commitments (with no infringement findings and no fine).
• We helped O2 secure closure with no infringement findings of the EC’s investigation regarding the network-sharing agreement for 3G and 4G networks between CETIN, T-Mobile and O2 in the Czech Republic. Commitments offered in the case were a blueprint for future network-sharing agreements in the EU and elsewhere.  

• Our firm represents complainants in antitrust investigations launched by the EC in digital markets. For example, we successfully represented complainants in the EC’s investigations against (i) Google for an abuse in the ad tech sector (infringement decision and fine of EUR 2.95 billion), and (ii) Microsoft for bundling of Teams and Windows (which led to a far-reaching commitments decision). 
• In the UK, we represent complainants and defendants in CMA investigations. We acted for complainants against Google (Privacy Sandbox, Ad Tech, and Play Store) and against Apple (App Store) and in defence of Simba Sleep (online selling practices, settled with commitments). Members of our team formerly at the CMA led major investigations in the pharmaceutical sector, such as Phenytoin and Hydrocortisone, including successfully defending the first ever challenge against a warrant to enter business premises. 
• In France, we represented a complainant in the French Autorité de la Concurrence’s investigations against Google (AdTech, leading to a fine of EUR 220 million) and Apple  (App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy, leading to a fine of EUR 150 million).
• In Germany, we defended a North American technology company, a global automotive parts producer, a leading European tour operator, and the managing director of a television studio, in separate antitrust investigations by Germany’s Bundeskartellamt or the EC , in each case, successfully avoiding the imposition of fines.
• On the litigation side, we have been involved in several landmark cases before EU Court of Justice, including Huawei v. ZTE and Slovak Telekom, as well as major damages actions, including such as Professor Rodger v. Google (Play Store), Professor Stephan v. Amazon and Ad Tech Collective Action LL,P v Or Google v. Google, Equativ v. Google and others. 

We represent both claimants and defendants. Our team combines deep knowledge of EU, UK, Dutch, French, German and Finnish competition law, as well as digital regulation, and related regulatory frameworks with extensive experience in complex dispute resolution.

We help clients assess litigation risks and opportunities early, devise robust procedural and substantive strategies, and execute them effectively before the relevant forums. Whether you are defending against an enforcement action or damages claim, or taking the initiative to recover losses caused by anti-competitive conduct, we can guide you through every stage of the process.

We also assist clients in managing litigation costs and risk. We have strong relationships with leading litigation funders and can help design and structure funding solutions for complex, high-value claims.

Our lawyers regularly appear before the EU courts, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, and the courts of key Member States, including the Netherlands, France, Finland and Germany. Where necessary, we work seamlessly with top-tier local firms, barristers, and economic experts to ensure effective and coordinated representation.

Our goal is always the same: to achieve the best possible outcome for our clients – whether that means mounting a vigorous defence, securing compensation, or finding a pragmatic resolution that serves their broader commercial objectives.  

• We have acted in several leading EU competition cases before the EU Courts, such as Huawei v. ZTE and Slovak Telekom, and our lawyers have been involved in numerous landmark cases prior to joining the firm, including in respect of cartels, abuses of dominance, merger cases, and private enforcement (Akzo, CDC, Hydrogen Peroxide).   
• We represent the Coalition for App Fairness as intervener in appeals brought by Apple in cases relating to the Digital Markets Act before the EU Courts. 
• We have acted in several damages claims, including Professor Stephan v. Amazon in the UK, the Google Ad Tech litigation in the Netherlands, and the Google Shopping cases in Germany where our client obtained a damages award of EUR 500 million.  
• We represent Deutsche Bahn group in one of Germany’s largest damages actions against members of the EU trucks cartel and negotiated multiple settlements.
• We represented Eurospares, a leading supplier of car spare parts, against Porsche for issues relating to its selective distribution system.
• Our lawyers who were previously at the CMA in senior roles have been involved in several appeals in the UK courts, including the Concordia v CMA warrant challenge in the High Court and the Sainsbury’s/ASDA judicial review in the  Competition Appeal Tribunal. 

We advise companies across the digital ecosystem, including media and technology firms, app developers, and online service providers, on all aspects of the new EU digital regulation regimes. Our work covers the DMA, the DSA, the Data Act, the AI Act and related frameworks at national level (DMCCA, Section 19a) that govern online platforms, data use, and digital markets.

We help clients anticipate and respond to these developments, advising on compliance, enforcement, and strategic engagement with regulators. Our team combines deep competition law expertise with a practical understanding of digital markets, enabling us to guide clients through complex regulatory change and to position them effectively in this fast-moving landscape.

Our team includes a former British government Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, six former senior officials of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, one of whom a co-lead of the Digital Markets Taskforce that advised the UK Government on the design of the DMCCA.

We co-founded the Responsible Online Commerce Coalition, which represents the interests of businesses that rely on Amazon and other e-commerce platforms to reach their customers.

Our firm authors the popular Platform Law Blog, which is read by thousands of policy makers and competition officials involved in digital regulation.  

• We represent business users in several DMA investigations before the Commission relating to app stores and search engines, and in several DMCCA proceedings relating to search engines, mobile platforms, e-commerce and the cloud sector.  In particular, we act as external counsel to the Coalition for App Fairness for UK and EU matters, including in investigations before the European Commission and proceedings before European Courts. 
• We represent clients on the Digital Services Act in several EU Member States. 
• Our lawyers have given evidence to the European Commission, the Furman Review, and the UK Parliament’s digital select committee and public bill committee. 
• We advised the Finnish Innovation Fund, Sitra, in a project aimed at exploring opportunities for the use media data in AI development, including alternative models to govern the use of copyrighted materials in AI training and laying the groundwork for a marketplace where media content is licensed and made available for AI training purposes.
• We advised a media federation in a project aimed at advancing a harmonised EU framework to support fair and transparent negotiations between media companies and technology firms over the use of publishers’ and other copyright-protected content in AI training.

We offer the full spectrum of EU litigation services to companies, trade associations, governmental entities, and individuals involved in EU disputes, across all business sectors.

We represent clients before the EU Courts to challenge EU decisions that adversely affect them, or to provide support to the EU institutions or other applicants in the context of direct actions. We also assist parties in the context of questions referred to the Court of Justice or the General Court for a preliminary ruling.

We regularly assist law firms that do not have a foothold in the EU, that lack specific EU litigation capabilities, that are conflicted in a particular dispute, or that wish to benefit from a second look, a second opinion, or to have us serve as second chair. We also offer mock-trial services to help clients prepare for oral hearings and ensure optimal results.

We bring cases in English, German, or French, as well as in other European languages including Dutch, Greek, and Finnish.

Our team’s distinctive strength lies in the depth and diversity of its members’ experience. Our litigation partners include former référendaires who spent over a decade at the Court of Justice drafting judgments in high-profile competition and State aid cases, former case handlers at DG Competition, and seasoned advocates who have appeared in some of the most consequential EU court proceedings of the past three decades. This combination of inside knowledge of the courts’ working methods and frontline advocacy experience is unmatched.

Our partners have been involved in many of the most significant cases before the EU Courts in the fields of competition, merger control, State aid, digital regulation, anti-dumping, and EU liability. Examples include:

Cases in the digital sector: 

• Representing key interveners in the landmark Google Shopping (T-612/17, C-48/22 P) and Google Android (T-604/18) cases before both the General Court and the Court of Justice.
• Representing interveners in Apple’s appeals against Commission decisions under the Digital Markets Act before the General Court (T-1080/23; T-359/25; T-438/25).
• Representing interveners in Google’s appeal against the Commission fining Google for antitrust violations in the Ad Tech sector (T-794/25).

Landmark antitrust cases: 

• Representing Servier and Biogaran in proceedings concerning alleged infringements of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU relating to patent settlement agreements and technology acquisition, securing a partial annulment of the Commission’s decision (C-176/19 P, C-209/19 P, C-207/19 P, C-201/19 P, T-691/14, T-677/14).
• Involvement in Huawei v ZTE (C-170/13), a landmark preliminary ruling on the interaction between standard-essential patents and abuse of dominance under Article 102 TFEU.
• Acting in Slovak Telekom v Commission (T-851/14, C-165/19 P), a leading case on margin squeeze and refusal to deal.
• Successfully challenging European Commission dawn raids in the French Retailers case (T-254/17, C-693/20 P) and representing Symrise in its appeal against a dawn raid decision (T-263/23).

Cartel cases: 

• Acting in numerous major cartel appeals, including Cathode Ray Tubes (T-104/13, C-623/15 P), Power Transformers (T-519/09, C-373/14 P), Euribor (T-113/17, C-883/19 P), Gas Insulated Switchgear (C-180/16 P), and Bathroom Fittings and Fixtures (AT 39.092), Air Canada v Commission (T-325/17 and T-326/17).

Merger cases: 

• Successfully defending the European Commission’s merger clearance for the EUR 65 billion E.ON/RWE asset swap (C-464/23, C-466/23, C-469/23).
• Representing CK Telecoms UK Investments in its challenge to the Commission’s prohibition of the Three/O2merger (T-399/16), a seminal case on the standard of proof in EU merger control.
• Representing interveners in seminal cases Honeywell International v Commission (T-209/01) and General Electric v Commission (T-210/01)

Cases shaping the law of private damages: 

• Acting for NCC in the landmark Skanska Industrial Solutions (C-724/17) cartel damages case, which confirmed the liability of successor entities in cartel damages claims.
• Securing landmark judgments in procedural rights and cartel damages cases, including Hydrogen Peroxide (C-352/13), Akzo v Commission (T-345/12), and CDC v Commission (T-437/08), which have been instrumental in shaping cross-border private enforcement in the EU.

Other cases: 

• Contributing, as référendaires, to the drafting of judgments in over 35 high-profile competition and State aid cases, including Deutsche Post (T-266/02), Arkema and Elf Aquitaine (T-343/08, T-299/08), Infineon Technologies (T-758/14), and Luxembourg (T-516/18).
• Acting for the Council of the European Union in multiple trade defence cases before the EU Courts, and in EU liability cases such as Schroeder v Council and Commission (T-205/14) and Hüpeden v Council and Commission(T-206/14).

We advise companies across a range of industries on merger control matters before the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, and national competition authorities across the EU. We also advise clients on foreign direct investment and national security reviews, and foreign subsidies control, which have become an integral part of global transaction planning.

We support clients through all stages of the regulatory process – from the initial antitrust risk assessment and multi-jurisdictional filing analysis to the preparation and submission of filings, responding to requests for information, negotiating remedies where required, and coordinating with local counsel to obtain merger control and foreign direct investment review clearances in a smooth and timely fashion. We provide strategic advice on clients’ regulatory strategy and engagement with authorities, taking into consideration broader geopolitical factors that may play a role.

We also advise companies seeking to challenge or comment on competitors’ transactions that are under investigation and assist in responding to request for information or market tests. By combining legal, economic, and policy expertise, we deliver pragmatic, strategic guidance that ensures merger processes advance efficiently and in line with clients’ commercial goals. 

Our firm has been involved in some of the most significant merger control matters of recent years, including in-depth Phase 2 investigations by the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority. We also have extensive experience coordinating the multi-jurisdictional merger and FDI filings (e.g., across Europe, MENA, Asia and Latin America) that are often required in connection with cross-border transactions, working with local counsel where necessary. 

We are frequently engaged by clients to conduct complicated merger feasibility studies for companies operating in different sectors. Our in-house team of economists and data scientists enhances the flexibility and efficiency of our work by supporting economic analysis, data handling, and quantitative modelling across filings.

Examples of recent merger-related experience are set out below.

• Veolia’s EUR 14 billion acquisition of Suez.
• Microsoft’s USD 70 billion acquisition of Activision.
• Microsoft’s ‘acqui-hire’ of Mustafa Suleyman and Inflection.AI’s engineering team.
• Acquisition by Foresco, a private equity firm, of DWP/Vierhouten, which was subject to Phase 2 merger investigation by the Dutch competition authority.
• PKN Orlen’s acquisition of Lotos, a Phase II merger with remedies.

Our team includes senior lawyers with extensive experience in merger control, FDI, and foreign subsidies filings handled at their prior law firms (see individual bios for details).

Beyond advising on merger investigations, our firm has experience litigating merger-related disputed before the EU and UK courts. Our team includes former senior regulators at the CMA, as well as experienced litigators who have led merger appeals in the EU and UK courts. 

• We represented the UK in the seminal CK Telecoms v European Commission case before the EU General Court and Court of Justice.
• We defended the European Commission’s merger clearances for the EUR 65 bn E.ON/RWE asset swap in litigation initiated by multiple third-party interveners.

Prior to joining the firm, members of our team formerly at the CMA:

• led the UK’s preparations for post-Brexit merger controlled
• the CMA’s investigation into BT’s acquisition of EE. 
• led the CMA’s investigation into the Sainsbury’s/Asda merger in the UK.

We support companies that need to understand, anticipate, and engage with regulatory and political developments affecting their business. Our team helps clients analyse upcoming legislation, regulatory reforms, and policy initiatives that may influence their operating environment or competitive position.

In practice, this means assisting companies with regulatory impact assessments, preparing policy analyses, and developing strategies for constructive engagement with governments, regulators, and other stakeholders. We help clients translate complex regulatory developments into clear strategic choices and identify opportunities to contribute to policy discussions with credible, evidence-based arguments.

Our services range from early-stage policy analysis and strategic advice to the preparation of policy papers, economic assessments, and stakeholder engagement strategies. We also support companies in situations where regulatory decisions may have significant commercial consequences, including market reforms, sector-specific regulation, and major legislative initiatives.

Our goal is to help clients navigate regulatory change effectively and ensure that their perspectives are understood in policy discussions.

We deliver policy advisory work for clients in the UK and EU.

We have direct experience of giving and preparing evidence for national parliamentary hearings in the UK and EU, as well as for the European Parliament.

Our legal team act as external counsel to the Coalition for App Fairness for UK and EU matters, including in investigations before the European Commission and proceedings before European Courts. 

Our investigations practice helps clients navigate this landscape — supporting them in detecting and remediating issues, engaging constructively with regulators, and reinforcing a culture of compliance and accountability. Our experience covers corruption, regulatory, fraud, and governance matters, as well as follow-up litigation, arbitration, and enforcement proceedings. As external counsel and former regulators, we deliver strategic support that helps clients address sensitive matters effectively and strengthen a culture of compliance and integrity.

We work with boards, general counsel, and senior management to design and conduct internal investigations and compliance reviews. We also assist companies in their interactions with regulatory authorities, public inquiries, and oversight processes, providing a clear engagement strategy while ensuring transparency and credibility. Our team works with clients through every stage of an investigation, from scoping, fact-finding, and reporting to remediation and engagement with authorities. We provide clear, practical, and evidence-based advice that supports clients in managing complex investigations and enhancing long-term organisational resilience. 

Our in-house economists and data scientists enable us to work more flexibly and efficiently with quantitative and data analysis that also enhance the accuracy and credibility of findings. Where appropriate, we harness AI-assisted tools conduct document review and case analysis, which helps ensures timely and consistent results across large datasets.

• Corporate investigations including investigations in government entities
• Regulatory, policy and enforcement investigations
• Public policy and oversight
• Governance, compliance, business integrity and risk management
• Trade, investment, and security regulation compliance and enforcement
• Due diligence, strategic investments and market entries
• Related authority and enforcement proceedings, litigation and arbitration

We have advised on several regulatory and governance-related investigations and the related proceedings at the European Commission, EU Court of Justice or national regulatory authorities, courts and arbitration and national governments and parliaments.

Our lawyers have extensive experience of investigations and of external counsel roles in investigations and related proceedings including experience at the European Commission (OLAF) and at the highest national judicial and investigative functions.

We assist businesses in interpreting and applying evolving regulatory regimes, ensuring compliance with both EU and national rules, and representing clients in related investigations and disputes. Our work spans advisory and strategic matters, engagement with regulators, and contentious proceedings before administrative bodies, national courts, and EU institutions.

We help clients anticipate and adapt to regulatory change, providing strategic advice on compliance structures, market access, and engagement with authorities. Our experience includes advising on the interface between competition, consumer protection, and sector-specific regulation, ensuring a coherent approach across all aspects of EU economic governance.

We are systematically strengthening our capabilities in economics and data science to provide clients with deeper analytical insight into regulatory, competition, and policy issues. In addition, we offer public policy services, helping clients engage constructively with policymakers and contribute to the development of sound, evidence-based regulation.

Examples of our sector-specific work can be found in the “Sectors” section.

• We represented a major national distribution network operator in a regulatory proceeding concerning distribution tariffs.
• We advised automotive sector companies on access to vehicle data and the sector-specific EU competition framework for the motor industry (EU’s Motor Vehicles Block Exemption Regulation, UK’s Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption Order).
• We conducted an extensive market study for The Recycling Industries of Finland, a trade association, and also acted in two adjacent state aid matters.
• We advised Cyan Robotics, a US-based food delivery robot company, on their European expansion, taking into account the requirements of relevant regulation.