With fines of up to 10% of gross annual turnover for breaching the competition rules and criminal prosecution for individuals involved in cartel activities, competition law compliance is no longer optional for businesses.
Competition law affects all aspects of your business:
- Are transactions and/or agreements compliant?
- Do you have a dominant position in a particular market and, if so, does particular conduct constitute an abuse?
- Are you or your competitors involved in a cartel?
- Do you attend trade association meetings or industry gatherings?
- Do you take part in joint ventures?
- Is your competitor receiving public funding in breach of the State Aid rules?
These are only some of the issues which our Competition Law Unit deals with on a regular basis. We can help you to identify and manage the risks of infringement and minimise your exposure to investigation, fines or imprisonment.
We advise clients on business strategy and how best to comply with competition law. We can work with you to develop and implement competition compliance guidelines tailored specifically to your business. We can also systematically monitor and audit commercial agreements and practices, and organise tailored in-house training.
In addition, we regularly advise clients on licensing agreements, research and development agreements, production agreements, distribution, marketing and sales agreements, technology transfer, trade association activities, due diligence, information exchange, joint ventures and other collaborative activities with competitors.
We also operate a Dawn Raid response service which ensures that, if the enforcement authorities do arrive at your premises, you have access to specialist advice and assistance at the outset.
Our Competition Law Group is quoted within 'Chambers & Partners 2009' as follows:
- "...clients praised its “wide-ranging approach, which looks at a problem from different angles.“
Strong Challengers