Frances Murphy is a partner with Morgan Lewis in London. She has considerable competition law experience representing clients in behavioral and transactional matters across a range of markets. On the behavioral side, her practice focuses on defending leading cartel cases, market sharing and patent settlement arrangements, and alleged abuses of dominant position. As a transactional lawyer, she has considerable experience with mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, joint ventures, and other strategic alliances, as well as with licensing of intellectual property rights. Frances leads the London competition law practice. She has defended clients in the recent European Commission investigations of price-fixing in the aviation and maritime shipping industries. She has participated in sector inquiries by the EU, the UK Competition Commission, and the Office of Fair Trading in the grocery, insurance, pharmaceuticals, and construction sectors. On the transactional side, she has represented AstraZeneca Plc, Crompton (now Chemtura), Inmarsat, Interoute Communications, and Persimmon Plc in acquisitions, joint ventures, and investments. Frances is a Fellow of the Centre for International Legal Studies and a member of the British Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, the Competition Law Forum, the Competition Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce, the European Federation of Pharmaceuticals Association, and the Law Society European Solicitors Group. She is party to a respected think tank on the European Commission on EU Competition Law and legislative change. She is a contributing editor of the State Regulation section of one of the leading U.K. competition law textbooks. Frances is identified as a leading competition lawyer by Chambers, Legal 500, and PLC Which lawyer?
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The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a paper on 19 January on the impact of algorithms on competition in digital markets and consumer welfare. The CMA followed up its paper with a call for evidence from market participants, academics, and industry experts, and with a (...)
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Following Brexit, EU competition law continued to apply in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2020 as part of an agreed Transition Period. In this LawFlash, we summarise how the end of the Transition Period is likely to impact the enforcement of competition law in the United Kingdom going (...)
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The UK Competition and Markets Authority on June 19 announced that it had opened investigations against four pharmacies and convenience stores in relation to suspected breaches of antitrust rules by charging excessive and unfair prices for hand sanitiser products during the coronavirus (...)
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On June 17, 2020, the UK Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the appeals on the lawfulness of multilateral interchange fees, or swipe fees, (MIFs) in Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd (Respondent) v. Visa Europe Services LLC and Others (Appellants) and Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd and Others (...)
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The European Commission (EC) on May 4 announced the adoption of exceptional derogations from EU competition rules to allow certain types of cooperation in the following sectors: milk and milk products, potatoes, and live plants and flowers, as part of a wider package to support the agri-food (...)
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The UK Parliament on May 1 adopted the Dairy Produce Order, which temporarily relaxes the application of UK competition law to certain types of cooperation between either dairy produce suppliers or logistic service providers to address issues in the supply chain caused by the ongoing (...)
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The UK government’s Dairy Produce Order of May 1, 2020, which temporarily relaxed the application of UK competition law to certain types of cooperation in the dairy sector between dairy produce suppliers or dairy logistic service providers during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, (...)
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The European Commission has provided antitrust guidance to companies cooperating in response to urgent coronavirus (COVID-19) related matters, particularly in the health sector for critical hospital medicines and medical equipment, and has also exceptionally issued a “comfort letter” on a (...)
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The European Commission published its first comfort letter in nearly 20 years on April 29, in an effort to foster cooperation among businesses during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Here is what companies should know about the specific practices permitted under the comfort letter, as well (...)
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New guidance from UK Competition and Markets Authority allows coordination between businesses in certain circumstances, such as to avoid shortages, protect the public interest, and safeguard health, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the guidance also underscores that the UK (...)
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On 14 September 2017, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that, following a reference from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), it was launching a market investigation into investment consultancy services and fiduciary management services to and by institutional investors (...)
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The European Competition Network ("ECN") has published a new version of its Model Leniency Programme ("MLP"). The MLP makes it easier for companies that have uncovered evidence of participation by their employees in a cartel to "blow the whistle" in return for immunity from, or a reduction in, (...)
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The UK Office of Fair Trading ("OFT") has published updated guidelines on its decisionmaking processes, in preparation for a wider reform of the UK competition law regime. The goals of the OFT’s revised procedures are quicker and fairer decisions by the OFT in enforcing UK and EU antitrust (...)
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The European Commission (EC) and the Swiss Competition Commission (SCC) have signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation between them and enable the exchange of information on antitrust matters. The agreement will enter into force once it has been approved by the European Parliament and the (...)
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A recent ruling from the EU General Court ("General Court") in EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG v Commission confirms that leniency documents produced under the European Commission’s ("Commission") leniency program are not exempt from disclosure in civil actions in the EU. Earlier this year, (...)
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The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT") has ruled that litigation privilege attaches to documents of parties being investigated, even when created before the Office of Fair Trading ("OFT") takes a formal infringement decision. The CAT confirmed that, once the OFT has issued a Statement of (...)
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On 15 March 2012, the UK Government announced its plans for reforming the UK competition regime. The Government has stopped short of radically redesigning the competition regime. Although one government body is replacing two, and there are significant changes expected for criminal (...)
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On 14 June 2011, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") ruled that EU law does not exempt leniency documents lodged with national competition agencies ("NCAs") from requests for disclosure in private actions. In a reference for preliminary ruling from a German court, Pfleiderer v (...)
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On 2 March 2011, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) made a ’fast-track’ reference to the Competition Commission (CC) of the travel agency joint venture proposed by Thomas Cook, Co-operative Group, and Midlands Co-operative Society. This is the first time the OFT has used this procedure (...)
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On 12 November 2010, the Court of Appeal for England and Wales ruled that the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) does not have discretion to extend the time period within which follow-on actions for damages may be commenced. The Court of Appeal’s judgment provides important clarification of (...)
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Today an independent committee, chaired by Lord Browne of Madingley, reported its recommendations for university funding and student finance in England. Lord Browne’s report, which could significantly affect future competition in higher education, includes the following recommendations: (...)
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The UK Competition Act prohibits agreements that have the object or effect of restricting competition within the UK. Currently, land agreements - such as freehold, leasehold and rental agreements - are exempt from the prohibition, but that is all about to change. With effect from 6 April 2011, (...)
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On 30 April 2010, the Office of Fair Trading (« OFT ») announced it was dropping a number of allegations in its dairy cartel investigation. The OFT conceded there was insufficient evidence of antitrust infringement in the information exchanges it had been investigating since 2003. The OFT (...)
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The European Commission has today adopted a new Insurance Block Exemption («New IBER»), exempting certain categories of cooperation in the insurance sector from the prohibition against anticompetitive cooperation contained in Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU («TFEU»). (...)
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On 12 January 2010, the European Commission sent an information request to a number of pharmaceutical companies, seeking copies of their patent settlement agreements, to check their compliance with EU antitrust rules (Official Press Release IP/10/12), as a follow up to its pharmaceutical (...)
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On 19 November 2009, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) confirmed the test it will apply when assessing whether to extend the time limit by which claimants may commence follow-on actions for damages before the CAT once there has been a finding of a breach of UK or EU competition law. (...)
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On 11 November 2009, the European Commission (the « Commission ») fined 24 companies a total of € 173 million for operating cartel arrangements in the plastic additive sector. The companies fixed prices, shared customers, allocated markets, and exchanged sensitive commercial information for (...)
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On 6 October 2009, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its judgment in the long-running wrangle regarding the legality of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) dual pricing arrangements with Spanish pharmaceutical wholesalers. As a result of the judgment, the European Commission (Commission) will (...)
