Avoiding UK, EU and international competition law penalties.

All businesses need to be aware of how competition law can impact on their day-to-day activities.

The risks of failing to do so are now too great - with much more focus in the media given to infringements and record fines being imposed on all those affected, from PLCs and major utilities to small family businesses.

Individuals can also be investigated personally and prosecuted for more serious breaches. Competition law can impact on a wide range of issues in any business including:

• knowing when a clearance from the regulatory authorities is needed for a merger or acquisition
• what you can or cannot say to your competitors
• what information you can exchange with your competitors
• whether you will be able to enforce your contracts if the other parties are not playing ball

• how to use competition law to get out of agreements
• writing contracts so that they will benefit from automatic exemption from the rules
• how to make sure you can rely on restrictive covenants in contracts and commercial leases if the other party ignores them
• what to do if you receive an unexpected visit from the European Commission or UK Competition and Markets Authority

Burness Paull's competition lawyers will help you tackle these issues so that you can remain focussed on your core business activities.

Through the firm's deep connections with top firms in each country, we have immediate access to best in class competition lawyers across the globe and are able to give you advice on international competition law issues, including merger clearance requirements for every issue.

Key Contacts

Our competition lawyers can also advise on:

• Investigations by the EU Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), including what to do if you are subject to a dawn raid, whistleblowing and applications for leniency, advice and tactics on responding to questions
• Making complaints about the anti-competitive behaviour of others in the market place
• Advising on disputes under competition law, whether on enforcing restrictions in commercial agreements or defending actions on the basis the contract is unenforceable under competition law
• Drafting and advising on commercial contracts to ensure they are not open to challenge
• Merger control, including obtaining clearance for mergers and acquisitions
• Compliance, including workshops, training and providing guidance for use in the business
• Procurement and State Aid

To avoid UK, EU and international competition penalties get in touch.

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