Competition law has an extensive impact on business. Failure to comply can have serious consequences, including fines of up to 10% of global, group turnover, lawsuits and the invalidity of commercial agreements.
We can work with you in order to ensure that your company is fully compliant and avoids sanction.
The law also offers important protections from anti-competitive behaviour. These include not only the right to file complaints with regulators, but also the ability to seek direct relief from the Courts.
We advise on all areas of EU and UK competition law, including:
- cartels and investigations
- abuse of dominant position
- merger control and joint ventures
- market studies and investigations
- competition litigation and private damages actions
- appeals against decisions by the competition authorities and other regulators
- commercial agreements and collaborations
- competition and intellectual property issues
- competition compliance programs
- dawn raids
- state aid.
Public procurement law
Public procurement law requires purchases of works, supplies and services of a significant value by public bodies and utilities companies to be put out to a fair and transparent competitive tender.
We frequently challenge flawed tendering processes on behalf of suppliers, overturning defective award and exclusion decisions. For regulated purchasers, our expert knowledge of procurement law assists clients in achieving their buying objectives quickly, easily and without challenge.
We advise on the EU Public Sector and Utilities Directives and also on tenders governed by specialist procurement rules, such as the EU Finance Regulation and Implementing Rules (including Europe aid projects).
Trade, customs, sanctions and other EU law areas
We regularly advise on how to comply with and solve problems presented by other EU law and regulations such as:
- rules on trade between member states and on imports from outside of the EU;
- EU sanctions and restrictive measures; and
- customs regulations, and rules on free movement of goods, services, people and capital around the EU.
These issues can arise, for example, when launching new products or entering the market in other EU member states.