The EC, competition and trade regulation practice reflects our traditional core strengths of insurance, shipping, aviation and energy. Our three-partner team is also increasingly busy in new sectors such as manufacturing, construction and health. A thriving litigation practice and strong experience before key institutions combine to make us market-leaders in this field.
As the largest European aviation practice, we advise on a wide range of EC issues affecting the industry. These include:
- Competition compliance
- Defending against Commission investigations
- State aid cases
- Advising on EC regulation, such as denied boarding regulations, technical standards and landing rights
Our clients include a wide range of global air carriers, both in the passenger and cargo sectors.
In our EC maritime practice, our focus is on shipowners and their co-operative arrangements. These include liner conferences, consortia and vessel pools agreements. We have been extensively involved in advising bulk and non-liner sectors, such as chemical tankers, car carriers, ferries and ‘heavy lift’ carriers. Several of the global shipping operators individually instruct us for competition advice.
Structuring arrangements between insurance providers and M&As is just part of our extensive experience advising the London insurance market on EC competition investigations.
Outside these core sectors, we advise on the EC competition aspects of M&As, structuring joint ventures, technical transfer and vertical agreements for leading agricultural, manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies.
A key part of our client service is compliance advice. Our regular ‘competition audits’ ensure agreements comply with EC rules and staff understand how to act in compliance with EC law. We train staff to respond to Commission sector enquiries and investigations, including dawn raids.
EC external relations law is a niche practice for us. We focus on the enforceability of WTO agreements within the EC legal system, and on bilateral trade agreements between the EC and its major trading partners. Eastern Europe is a key growth area for us and we have recently advised on agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Russia as well as Turkey.
Our EC litigation practice covers both defendants and claimants.