EU, Competition and Regulatory
About the Group
Our EU, Competition and Regulatory Group comprises specialist lawyers with experience ranging from private practice in London and Brussels to EC institutions in Brussels and Luxembourg.
The Group provides expert legal advice on all aspects of EU, Competition and Regulatory matters, including merger control, cartel and dominance cases, public procurement law, state aid rules, competition law audits and compliance, competition litigation and sectoral regulation.
We were ranked as one of the leading EU and Competition law firms in Ireland by the European Legal 500 2009.
Please click here to access our EU, Competition and Regulatory brochure
Practice Areas
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Merger Control
The Group has significant merger control experience, including assessment of the applicability of EC and Irish merger law and notification and clearance of mergers before the Irish Competition Authority. The Group notified a substantial proportion of all mergers in Ireland, some of which are highlighted below. -
Cartel and Dominance Cases
The Group has considerable experience in advising on cartel and dominance cases, and in particular, on the impact of the competition rules on agreements and commercial activities and the interaction between Irish and EC law. The Group has acted for companies accused of allegations of abuse of a dominant position by the Competition Authority and for clients making complaints to the European Commission and Irish Competition Authority alleging abuse of dominance. The Group has also acted for companies alleged to be involved in cartel activity and has represented clients accused of such behaviour before the European Commission and the Competition Authority. -
Public Procurement Law/State aid rules
The Group also specialises in public procurement law and state aid rules, and regularly advises clients on the applicability of these regimes and the remedies available to them. The Group has advised the State in respect of allegations of State aid and has represented the State before the European Commission. Advice has been provided to numerous parties, including several government departments, in respect of public procurement and state aid issues in a variety of sectors such as transport, the introduction of digital terrestrial TV, postal, gas and telecoms. -
Competition Audits and compliance
The Group assists in the review of commercial agreements for compliance with EC and Irish competition rules, including block exemptions. An important part of this work involves an understanding of the interaction between competition rules and intellectual property law. The Group also assists in the preparation of competition audit and compliance programmes for clients, advises clients on “dawn raids” and witness summons procedures, and assists clients faced with “dawn raids” by the Competition Authority and the European Commission. -
Competition Litigation
The Group advises in the context of contentious competition cases, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in some of the most significant competition cases before the Irish courts. The Group also has experience of litigation before the European Courts in Luxembourg. -
Sectoral Regulation
The Group regularly advises on regulated sectors, such as telecommunications, postal services, energy, transport (including aviation, bus and rail) and broadcasting. It has been involved in most of the State privatisations in recent years. -
WTO and International Trade
The Group advises on EU and international trade defence proceedings such as anti-dumping and anti-subsidy, as well as WTO agreements and related disputes, and links with the firm's Tax Group for EU customs issues such as origin, classification and export controls. The Group has in-depth experience before the European Commission and national customs authorities, as well as before the European Courts in Luxembourg.
Representative Transactions
The Group has recently advised on the following transactions:
- acting for Allied Irish Banks on the proposed joint venture between Ark Life Insurance Company and Hibernian Life Holdings (part of Aviva plc)
- acting for Hutchison 3G Ireland, “3” on its successful appeal to the Electronic Communications Appeal Panel on ComReg’s designation of SMP in the wholesale voice call termination market
- acting for leading pharmaceutical company on the approval by the European Commission of a large aid package from the State
- Stena AB in respect of the proposed acquisition of certain assets on the Irish Sea from P&O
- Department of Transport in respect of the proposed restructuring of Aer Rianta
- Regulatory and competition issues in the context of a competition for generation capacity run by the Commission for Energy Regulation
- Hewlett Packard on merger control and competition issues
- Independent News & Media plc on competition and merger control
- A member of the Valentia consortium on regulation and competition issues arising from the consortium’s acquisition of Eircom
- Hutchinson Whampoa in relation to its successful acquisition of a third generation (3G) mobile licence
- Competition and regulatory advice in the postal sector
The EU Competition and Regulatory Group is headed by Helen Kelly who has frequently been recognised as one of Ireland’s leading EU competition and regulatory lawyers, and who was named as one of Ireland’s three best competition and antitrust lawyers by Euromoney Legal Media Group in its Guide to the World’s Leading Competition and Antitrust lawyers. Helen is also the only Irish lawyer nominated in the '100 Women in Antitrust' survey for Global Competition Review. Helen leads a team of dedicated experts who have built up a wealth of expertise in the competition and regulatory area and who pride themselves on offering clients the best advice on law and strategy.