If your business has been accused of breaching UK or EU competition rules by adopting anti-competitive practices or through abuse of your market position then immediate legal advice is absolutely critical, particularly where competition regulators have swooped in without warning.
Urgent advice is also needed where competition rules are being used to block a proposed merger or acquisition or where antitrust legislation is being cited by suppliers or competitiors in an attempt to challenge commercial arrangements.
Why is urgent advice necessary?
Where concerns are raised about anti-competitive behaviour there are a lot of things that you will need to think about, and fast. Should you bow to pressure and cease your activities to avoid any further action? What do you do if a regulator launches a dawn raid on your premises? What are your rights and obligations while an investigations is being carried out? What sort of penalties are you likely to face where infringement is confirmed and what are the chances of affected rivals then resorting to litigation to claim compensation?
You will need answers to these questions and more before you make further decisions.
How can IMD Solicitors help?
Our experienced dispute resolution lawyer can help by providing you with access to a range of support services designed to inform your decisions and hopefully shut down competition concerns before they have a chance to escalate.
These services include:
- working alongside our corporate team to scrutinise proposed mergers and acquisitions to determine, in advance of those proposals being published, whether any restructuring is needed to overcome or alleviate potential competition concerns;
- working alongside our commercial law team to review current contract arrangements to identify and tone down potentially anti-competitive provisions;
- supporting you in pre-investigation process and providing advice on what you do and do not need to disclose;
- negotiating penalties and leniency applications where infringement is found to have occurred, particularly where you have been implicated in a cartel or monopolisation of a market;
- working alongside our employment law team to deal with disciplinary proceedings arising our wrongdoing by individual directors or employees and in effecting redundancies where your business needs to be broken up to address competition concerns; and
- representing you in court proceedings, whether you a business accused of anti-competitive behaviour on the receiving end of a claim or an affected rival pursuing monetary damages or seeking an injunction to prevent further harm to your commercial interests.
We can also help to resolve:
- contractual disputes, where antitrust legislation is being used to try to void a contract or to excuse a contact breach;
- intellectual property disputes, where competition rules are being deployed to challenge the fairness or licensing terms, particularly around patent rights; and
- franchise, agency and distribution disputes, where the terms of an arrangement are said to be unfairly restrictive.
Why choose IMD Solicitors?
Our team of dispute resolution are specialists in competition and antitrust disputes and have particular expertise in cross-border matters involving alleged breaches of EU competition law.
We have an excellent track record in achieving great results, even in cases of immense difficulty.
We are particularly valued for our ability to work collaboratively with other members of the IMD team and with external professionals, including tax advisors, to deliver advice that not only takes account of the problems at hand but any wider commercial considerations.
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List of notable dispute resolution cases
- Multi-jurisdictional dispute involving international consortium of corporate shareholders of a Saudi oil and gas subsidiary, involving allegations of fraud and breaches of contractual obligations. Liquidation of the subsidiary was sought by a proportion of shareholders. Settlement was reached between all and liquidation successfully prevented.
- Dual-jurisdictional dispute involving essentially a battle between conglomerate of companies, with proceedings lodged with various courts across two jurisdictions involving complex jurisdictional and commercial matters.
- Claim against international plc involving defending allegations of fraud. Concluded successfully and saved the Client from insolvency.
- Acting for a Claimant in a dispute with a global payment processing institution, involving misconduct allegations and challenge to jurisdiction. Case settled at over 80% of the amount claimed despite initial arguments and denial by the institution.
- Defended a breach of contract claim involving a cross-border supply of goods. Using strong defence arguments but preserving our client’s commercial position, we managed to resolve the matter through a reduction of the main claim by 75% and potential costs liability by 80%.
- Acted for a construction company in a claim to recover an unpaid contractual fees. Judgment in favour of the Client secured a trial despite little documentary evidence available and relying mostly on witness evidence.
- Represented a company Director in a successfully defended claim involving allegations of fraud and breach of fiduciary duties
- Acting for a claimant in a construction dispute. The matter proceeded to trial where the Claimant successfully obtained a judgement for the full amount.
- Acting for a defendant who failed to file a defence and had default judgement entered against him prior to instructing our firm. The judgement was set aside and eventually the value of the claim was reduced by 75%.
- Acting for a creditor in a reported High Court case relating to enforcement of a foreign judgement in the UK. Successfully defended an application by a debtor to declare the judgement unenforceable.
- Regularly acting for a group of companies dealing with medical equipment manufacturing and worldwide distribution. Assisting with both contentious and non-contentious cases ranging from commercial and employment to GDPR compliance.
- Represented a Client in a complex shareholders’ dispute concluded by the way of agreement and voluntary liquidation of the company.
- Acting for the UK based construction company in a dispute with a contractors. Settled the claim for circa. 90% of the amount originally claimed.
- Pursuing a claim against a firm of solicitors who have provided our client with negligent advice. Successful recovery of circa 80% of the loss incurred.
- Acting for a large meat supplier in a dispute with the distributor arising due to faulty product being introduced earlier in the supply chain.
- Successfully defending a client from committal to prison, in a private prosecution brought by the insurers of a third party following a road traffic collision.
- Acting in a dispute with the main contractor on a construction project. Successfully recovered our client’s losses incurred as a result of the main contractor and successfully defended all counterclaims that were brought against our client.
- Acting for an investor in a dispute with a trading company. Successfully obtained a judgment for the sums deducted from the client’s account by the trading company.
- Acting for a landlord in possession proceedings. Successfully obtained a court order for possession and evicted the tenant using the court appointed bailiff.
- Acting for a claimant in a Professional Negligence matter, successfully settling the case before trial
Awards and Accreditations
IMD in the Media
