Antitrust & Competition - Europe

Brattle’s competition experts support and advise clients involved in competition, regulatory, and commercial matters in European markets. We provide expert testimony and analyses in litigation, mergers, regulatory investigations, damages, and other competition-related disputes.

In litigation, our experts cover both unilateral and coordinated conduct covering all sectors, including digital platforms, transport, energy, financial benchmarks, and telecommunications. Our experts have been instructed in multiple business-to-business disputes and class actions.

In the evaluation of mergers and acquisitions, Brattle has extensive experience supporting horizontal and vertical transactions, including formulating appropriate remedies if the competitive analyses do not satisfy safe harbour thresholds. We regularly support transactions that must clear regulatory hurdles in multiple jurisdictions.

Brattle experts also regularly support clients involved in competition investigations, including those related to Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and Chapters 1 and 2 of the UK Competition Act, market investigations, and state aid.

Working with businesses, regulators, competition authorities, and government entities, we routinely present our analyses before the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and other national competition authorities throughout Europe.

Representative Engagements

• Litigation:
  • Brattle experts have provided testimony in several standalone and follow-on collective actions before the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Netherlands courts, including in matters concerning trucks, trains, marine car carriers, foreign exchange, and digital platforms.

• Mergers:
  • Brattle Principals led a trans-Atlantic team in analyzing the competitive effects of a proposed merger between two table grapes breeders, which resulted in the European Commission granting unconditional Phase 1 approval.
  • Brattle conducted economic analyses for the proposed acquisition of Ferro Corporation by Prince International Corporation, both manufacturers and suppliers of porcelain enamel and glass coatings. Brattle supported the parties in making submissions including the US, China, the European Economic Area, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan, and Turkey.
  • Brattle advised Nynas, a European specialty oils manufacturer, throughout a Phase II Commission investigation of its acquisition of an oil refinery from a large oil producer.

• Competition Investigations:
  • A Brattle team advised Visa Europe throughout an Article 101 TFEU investigation of the multilateral interchange fee for credit and debit card payments in Europe. This work involved designing and implementing consumer and merchant surveys of the cost of cash and card transactions throughout the EU, analyzing the benefits of cards for consumers and merchants, and performing economic analysis of consumers’ responses to credit card surcharges. The analysis was used to estimate an efficient level of card interchange fees and evaluate the effects of introducing payment card surcharges on consumer behavior.
  • Brattle assisted a global investment bank in connection with a Commission investigation of alleged collusion to manipulate global foreign exchange benchmarks. We provided guidance on the appropriate basis for the calculation of fines.
  • Brattle assisted a global investment bank throughout a CMA investigation of alleged collusion in the UK government bond market.

• Market Investigations:
  • Brattle experts have worked on several market investigations conducted by the CMA, including into the British Airports Authority and the energy, retail banking, payday lending, private healthcare, payment protection insurance and grocery industries.

• State Aid:
  • Brattle has advised large energy companies in several EU countries in connection with investigations by the Commission of whether artificially low regulated tariffs or negotiated prices could constitute illegal state aid. We undertook detailed economic and financial analyses, including modeling the domestic electricity market and preparing a financial valuation model. Our analyses and written testimonies underpinned clients’ legal cases.
  • For HM Treasury in the UK, Brattle economists developed a methodology to identify sensitive sectors where the distortion of competition induced by state aid is likely to be particularly serious. We provided a framework in which an economic analysis of state aid can be performed, traced out the effect that various types of aid can have on competition, and presented background information on EU state aid policy.