Our European competition practice has expanded significantly in recent years, reflecting a strategic decision to ensure that we are able to provide the range of expertise and critical mass that is essential in order to deal with large and complex matters. We now have some fifteen competition lawyers in Brussels, giving us the depth and breadth to handle the most complex matters.
We handle complex, high-stakes cases for our clients across the full spectrum of cartels and restrictive agreements, mergers, joint ventures, distribution and other commercial arrangements, abuse of dominance, state aid and litigation. Recent high-profile cases include representing Microsoft in its acquisition of Skype, FaceBook in its acquisition of Instagram, Microsoft, Expedia and TripAdvisor in their complaints against Google, Microsoft in its complaint against Motorola Mobility, Ryanair in the OFT’s investigation into its minority stake in Aer Lingus, bPost in a Commission State aid investigation, Samsung in the DRAM cartel case, and AstraZeneca, ČEZ, Pfizer, Slovak Telecom, Verizon and National Instruments in abuse-of-dominance investigations.
Reflecting Covington’s strong regulatory practices, lawyers in our competition group have a blend of substantive competition law and deep sector-specific expertise in highly-regulated sectors including information technology, intellectual property, communications, life sciences, energy, aviation and maritime transport. In addition, we work closely with lawyers from the firm’s regulatory practices to provide creative, holistic solutions.
Our clients come from around the world and a variety of industries. They include Alps, AstraZeneca, bPost, Bristol-Myers Squibb, ČEZ, Coty, CR Bard, Electricité de France (EDF), Electronic Arts, Eli Lilly, E.ON, Expedia, FaceBook, Harley Davidson, Gilead, Kuwait Petroleum, Microsoft, OMV, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Ryanair, Samsung, Slovak Telecom, TripAdvisor and Verizon.
Our Strengths
Our European competition practice has several key distinguishing features:
Multidisciplinary Approach
In today’s highly-regulated environment, competition issues are often part of a larger regulatory matrix in which interdisciplinary expertise in the regulatory and scientific domains is critical for properly analyzing the competition law challenges facing our clients. For example, when a pharmaceutical company launches a new product, it faces issues involving competition law, pharmaceutical law, and intellectual property law. Likewise, when a communications company is seeking to reduce its termination and access costs, it faces a range of competition law, communications law and administrative law issues. We help clients develop effective and coherent strategies reflecting the interplay among the issues.
Expertise in Competition Issues Facing New Economy Industries
Our competition lawyers have extensive experience in dealing with the complex issues at the intersection of competition and intellectual property law facing our clients in technology sectors such as information technology, communications, software, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. We have represented clients in competition cases and litigation in which this interface is critical and we regularly advise clients on complex licensing and R&D arrangements as well as issues that arise in the context of standard-setting activities.
Effective Working Relationships with Key Officials
Over the years, our lawyers have developed strong working relationships with key Commission officials both within the DG Competition hierarchy as well as with the Chief Economist Team, the Legal Service, the Hearing Officers, and the members of the Competition Commissioner’s cabinet.
One-Stop Shop
We offer clients a one-stop shop for international competition issues. With the proliferation of cross-border mergers, joint ventures, multi-jurisdictional cartel investigations and commercial transactions, our clients are able to take advantage of the firm’s ability to advise them on competition issues in the United States, Europe and Asia. Our Brussels, Washington, Beijing and Seoul teams regularly work together on complex transactions, combining to maximise their leverage and using their relationships with the agencies. Our strong culture of teamwork and collegiality ensures seamless cooperation across offices.
In Europe, Asia and South America, we have relationships with leading firms in the major jurisdictions, which enable us to handle multi-jurisdictional projects that may range from merger filings to leniency applications. Clients also take advantage of our ability to provide a one-stop shop with respect to the complementary government affairs aspect of the case through our government affairs teams in Washington and Brussels.
Complementary Government Affairs Practice
We have developed a strong government affairs practice in Brussels that allows us to offer clients strategic and policy advice along with the more traditional competition law advice they need. Competition cases are not decided in a vacuum, and our clients recognize that they must take into account the broader dynamics of decision-making in Brussels.
E-Discovery
Electronic discovery has arrived in Europe. Increasingly, investigations by the European Commission and other authorities focus on obtaining and reviewing electronic data. We are able to leverage the significant know-how and IT resources of our leading US litigation practice to deal with e-discovery requests in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Representative Matters
- Counsel to Microsoft in its acquisition of Skype, the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history.
- Counsel to Ryanair in the OFT’s investigation into its minority shareholding in Ireland’s national carrier, Aer Lingus. Previously, we represented Ryanair in its appeal against the European Commission's decision to block its proposed acquisition of Aer Lingus.
- Counsel to Facebook in relation to its acquisition of Instagram.
- Counsel to Microsoft, Expedia and TripAdvisor in connection with their complaints regarding Google’s anticompetitive search-related conduct.
- Counsel to Microsoft in connection with its complaint regarding Motorola Mobility’s licensing of standards-essential patents.
- Counsel to Microsoft in the European Commission’s investigation of the alleged tying of Internet Explorer with Microsoft’s Windows Operating System.
- Lead counsel to Samsung Electronics concerning all aspects of the European investigation into alleged collusion in the DRAM market, which ended with the landmark first settlement under the EU’s settlement procedure.
- Lead counsel to Samsung Electronics concerning all aspects of the European investigation into alleged collusion in TFT-LCD.
- Counsel to Slovak Telekom in a European Commission abuse-of-dominance investigation concerning alleged refusal to deal and margin squeeze in the Slovak broadband sector.
Accolades
- GCR (2012)
- Chambers Global (2013)
- Competition/European Law, Belgium
- Miranda Cole - Competition/European Law, Belgium
- Damien Geradin - Competition/European Law, Belgium
- David Hull - Competition/European Law, Belgium
- Chambers Europe (2011-2013)
- Competition/European Law and TMT
- Legal 500 EMEA (2010-2013)
- Practical Law Company - Which Law Firm?
- Competition, European Union (2008-2012)
- EU Telecoms, Media & Technology (2011)
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