An overview of the OSA, covering its scope, key obligations and what organisations need to navigate the evolving regulatory landscape.
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Evolving consumer, advertising and competition requirements, and how organisations can prepare for increased enforcement and compliance demands.
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We advise companies in the women's health sector on the commercial, legal and regulatory challenges of bringing new therapies and solutions to market, helping to address the gender health gap.
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Led by three partners and two of counsel, our highly experienced competition and antitrust team offers clients a genuinely integrated service with deep sector knowledge.
We advise clients on all aspects of EU and UK competition law, with particular expertise in the life sciences and tech sectors. Our team has a distinguished track record of representing clients before the CMA, the European Commission, and courts in the UK (up to Supreme Court level) and beyond. Our expertise spans three key areas:
Our competition team has acted on landmark competition disputes, often involving technology and intellectual property rights, for more than 25 years. This length of experience has created a genuinely distinctive practice, combining an in-depth knowledge of competition law with extensive litigation expertise.
We act on all types of competition litigation, encompassing appeals up to Supreme Court level, including:
We are able to scale our approach to the size and nature of the dispute. For smaller disputes we are adept at taking a cost-effective approach. For larger damages claims we are able to call upon a very large team of experienced individuals from the competition team and from Bristows wider litigation practice.
See here for further details of our experience below, and see here for our FRAND expertise.
We advise on all aspects of UK merger control, from transaction structuring and global filing strategy through to clearance and implementation.
We advise on UK and international filing requirements globally, engagement with competition authorities, FDI and national security screening, including under the NSIA, and the management of gun-jumping and pre-completion risks. We have extensive experience of securing clearances, negotiating remedies where necessary, and helping clients navigate post-completion issues. We also advise challengers and other third parties on how best to engage with merger investigations where their commercial interests may be affected.
See further details of our experience below.
Compliance with competition law is business-critical - breaches can result in regulatory scrutiny, heavy fines and, in some cases, director disqualification or other personal liability.
We help clients navigate competition law risks at every stage, from designing bespoke compliance systems, and assessing commercial strategies to advising on pricing, licensing, supply, distribution and other commercial agreements). We have particular expertise in all forms of technology transfer, R&D and licensing collaborations and joint ventures, working alongside our Commercial IP and Transactions team.
Many companies may find themselves requiring advice on abuse of dominance rules. Drawing on our deep expertise in technology and IP-rich sectors, we advise both dominant firms and innovative challengers on abuse of dominance issues, helping clients manage regulatory risk, respond to investigations, and pursue or defend competition claims.
When issues arise, we have deep experience representing complainants and defendants involved in competition investigations into conduct or markets before the CMA and the European Commission.
Our team includes former members of the UK regulators and our senior advisors are all dual-qualified EU/UK lawyers, enabling us to advise across the full spectrum of EU and UK competition law.
We support clients through every stage of a dawn raid and its aftermath. Our team provides rapid, coordinated assistance during unannounced inspections of both business and private premises in the UK, ensuring that legal rights are protected and disruption is minimised. We also represent clients throughout any subsequent investigation, including CMA proceedings and director disqualification actions.
To help clients prepare, we offer practical in-house training and realistic mock dawn raids or workshops tailored to specific business needs.
We also handle CMA investigations into potential breaches of consumer law.
Our lawyers have deep experience in working with technology companies. Along with members of our leading data protection and AI practices we are well placed to assist companies with Strategic Market Status with obligations imposed under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, or to advise other market participants on the implications of the regime.
Stay up to date on the latest competition and antitrust developments – our team covers the latest news in litigation, merger control and investigations. With our focus on tech and life sciences, we offer updates on the IP-competition interface, AI, digital markets and novel theories of harm.
Our competition team advises on all aspects of EU and UK competition law, including litigation, merger control and investigations. We have long-standing expertise in the tech and life sciences sectors. Whether you are facing a dawn raid, planning a filing or weighing a claim, speak directly to the partner who will run your matter.
