Competition law solicitors

Public Procurement and Subsidy Control

We are known for our thorough knowledge and solution-focused advice on public procurement and subsidy control. Our competition law practice has developed through the firm’s strong relationships with local and national government clients, including many central government agencies and regional governmental bodies. We regularly advise our public sector clients on ensuring that their projects (often high value and high profile) are structured and delivered in a competition law compliant manner. We also regularly advise businesses on their rights under procurement rules to challenge contract award decisions made in favour of third parties and businesses seeking to challenge the grant of public subsidy to their competitors.

Merger control, anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance

We also regularly advise our business clients on merger control, anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance. On merger control, we advise on whether clearance should be sought for proposed mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. On anti-competitive agreements, we advise on compliance with the prohibition on anti-competitive agreements (including board and staff training and guidance on what can be discussed with competitors and how to deal with “dawn raids”); ensure contracts with suppliers, customers and other trading partners are enforceable (e.g. in relation to longer term exclusivity or restrictions on re-sale or restrictions on land use); and advise businesses on what they can do if others are behaving anti-competitively.

In addition, we provide competition law advice to a variety of clients (including third sector clients such as registered social landlords and other charities) in relation to commercial agreements and grant funding (subsidy control issues). We also regularly advise on the Commercial Agents Regulations.

Competition Law Litigation

Our expertise in competition law litigation makes us a clear choice for clients facing competition law disputes and we are well placed to act on complex, high-value and high-profile competition law litigation relating to business cartels and cases in the Competition Appeals Tribunal.