King & Spalding’s UK competition and regulatory team advises on all aspects of UK and EU competition law and sector regulation and counsels clients in the UK, before the UK competition and sector regulators, the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the higher courts, and at the EU level, before the European Commission, the European General Court and the Court of Justice of the EU.
Areas of Expertise
- Merger control, acquisitions and joint venture
- Advisory and counselling (agreements and commercial practices)
- Antitrust disputes and litigation
- Regulated industries and industry specialties (including communications, energy (electricity and gas), financial services, life sciences, high-technology, media, transport (rail, airports), and water)
- Compliance and dawn raids
Comprehensive Antitrust Experience
Our competition lawyers have local and international experience to provide analysis and solutions to the full range of our clients’ competition law needs - in the UK, EU and beyond. We assist our clients in:
Considering and securing merger control approval for complex transactions. We have a strong track record in assisting clients secure merger clearances before the UK competition authorities and in coordinating the UK merger control aspects with multi-jurisdictional merger control in global deals.
Assessing the legality of agreements commercial practices. The UK Competition Act 1998 prohibits agreements or arrangements that prevent, restrict or distort competition and which may affect trade in the UK. It also prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position. We regularly advise on the competition law implications of agreements, including cooperative joint ventures (which fall short of mergers), supply and distribution arrangements, agreements relating to IP and commercial practices.
Navigating antitrust disputes and litigation. We have wide experience in advising on, and representing clients in, appeals against decisions of the UK and EU competition and regulatory authorities as well as antitrust-driven private actions and arbitrations.
Dealing with economic, regulatory and market investigations. Our ability to combine our deep subject matter experience in competition law with industry knowledge of specific sectors allows us to meet the challenges of investigations and enforcement by the sector regulators (including Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat, and ORR in the UK). The UK competition and regulatory authorities are increasingly conducting industry wide inquiries where there are concerns about market failure not exclusively related to infringement by individual companies. We have acted on many of the most significant market investigations in the UK.
Developing a competition risk management programme. We provide a complete competition compliance service that will seek to prevent an infringement taking place, address the immediate effects of an investigation by attending a dawn raid and help the business address longer-term issues.
High Valued-Added Solutions
- Pre-eminent reputation in competition and antitrust. Our clients have the reassurance of working with a major international firm whose lawyers are widely recognised as leading authorities in antitrust, competition and dispute resolution.
- Deep industry expertise. Our range of experience extends to all sectors of the economy and sector regulators. This allows us to combine intimate knowledge of the sector with specialist experience of antitrust and to promote effective dialogue between industry participants and authorities.
- Relationships with authorities, policy makers and industry experts. Our team have developed important ‘on the ground’ relationships, including with the UK and EU competition and sector regulators, economists and industry bodies.
