Linklaters

In recent public communications, regulators in both the US and Europe have expressly committed themselves to vigorous enforcement against such practices. This is exemplified in recent heavy fines imposed by competition regulators on companies for abusive behaviour.

The Linklaters competition team have extensive experience of assisting clients with complex dominance related issues and take an active role in the policy debate through our work for clients and in our other professional activities.

We assist clients with leading market positions by:

• advising on how to execute their commercial strategies in a legally compliant manner
• understanding the legal and economic theory whilst assessing the practical risks in a commercial context
• advising on the procedural and substantive issues arising from abuse of dominance investigations initiated by national competition and regulatory authorities and the European Commission
• advising on appeals against decisions of national competition and regulatory authorities and the European Commission

Recent transactions include advising

• Microsoft on various competition authority investigations relating to bundling, pricing and access to an essential facility
• De Beers in relation to the fundamental revision of its distribution system for rough diamonds including negotiation with the European Commission and litigation in the English, Belgian and Community courts
• Duales System Deutschland AG before the Court of First Instance in complex Article 82 appeal proceedings against the European Commission decision requiring DSD to share its intellectual property and essential facilities with competitors
• Sanofi-aventis in relation to an investigation by the French Competition Authority into alleged predatory pricing practices