Matthew Readings
Shearman & Sterling (London)
Partner
Matthew Readings is Global Antitrust Practice Group Leader and Head of the London and Brussels Offices. He splits his time between London and Brussels and focuses on EU and UK competition law, including transactional and behavioral/contentious work. Matthew advises a broad range of clients on strategic merger clearance issues, represents clients before the European Commission and the CMA, oversees multi-jurisdictional merger clearance processes in countries throughout the world and has handled complex European Commission and CMA cases including Phase II investigations and remedy cases. He also advises on cartel investigations by the European Commission appeals to the European Courts (where he appears as an advocate) and UK cartel investigations and market studies/investigations by the CMA and sector regulators such as the FCA. He is experienced in private enforcement of antitrust rights in the UK courts. Matthew is recommended in the principal legal directories and teaches EU competition law at Oxford University.
Distinctions
Nominee, 2021 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Private Enforcement
Nominee, 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Procedure
Nominee, 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Mergers
Nominee, 2018 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Concerted Practices
Nominee, 2015 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, General Antitrust
Linked authors
Elvira Aliende Rodriguez
Shearman & Sterling (Brussels)
Sultan Almasoud
Shearman & Sterling (Riyadh)
Hundt Brendan
Shearman & Sterling (Dubai)
Christopher Bright
Shearman & Sterling (London)
Brian G. Burke
Shearman & Sterling (New York)
6700 | Events
Articles
5829 Bulletin
13
The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) entered into force on 12 January 2023. It represents a massive expansion in the European Commission’s power to investigate inward investment to the EU. This new regulation—the first of its kind in the world—attempts to assert control over subsidies granted (...)
478
On 18 May 2022the European General Court rejected Canon’s appeal against a €28 million fine imposed by the European Commission in 2019 for its breach of EU gun-jumping rules, just a few months after a similar judgment therefore vindicating the Commission’s aggressive stance on such breaches. (...)
324
On 26 January 2022 the General Court (GC) issued its latest judgment in the Intel case, faulting fundamental aspects of the Commission’s original decision almost 13 years prior. The judgment’s findings are promising for pending cases appealing similar issues, including the application of the “as (...)
317
The U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) last week certified the well-publicized Mastercard class action litigation. In our previous article (See Chris Collins, Elvira Aliende Rodriguez, Jonathan Swil, Ozlem Fidanboylu, The UK Supreme Court gives guidance on collective proceedings in (...)
187
On 11 November 2020, the U.K. Government announced long-awaited and extensive reforms to the U.K. foreign investment regime. The reforms proposed are more significant than anticipated and include a mandatory notification regime alongside broader “call-in” powers for the Secretary of State. The (...)
478
On 1 July 2020, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a statement outlining a series of regulatory initiatives aimed at Google and Facebook, focussed on digital advertising. This follows the release of the CMA’s report on digital advertising and online platforms the same (...)
93
On 1 July 2020, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a statement outlining a series of regulatory initiatives aimed at Google and Facebook, focused on digital advertising. This follows the release of the CMA’s report on digital advertising and online platforms the same day. (...)
171
In her first speech upon being reappointed as Competition Commissioner, Commissioner Vestager announced that a review would be undertaken of the Commission’s Market Definition Notice (the “Notice”); the consultation on that review closed Friday, October 9th. The Notice is an important document in (...)
49
Introduction The U.K. Supreme Court has handed victory to a group of British retailers (the “respondents”) in a long-running dispute with Mastercard and Visa Europe (the “appellants”) finding that the default “multilateral interchange fees” (MIFs) set by Mastercard and Visa and charged by (...)
60
Under the leadership of Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission has taken an increasing interventionist stand across all areas of antitrust enforcement, in particular in merger control. The EU’s General Court dealt that aggressive agenda a massive blow by annulling the first of her many (...)
431
How will European Competition Enforcers Respond? The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to the economy and competition enforcement is no exception. Authorities at EU and national level may need to consider novel solutions to respond to rapidly evolving problems and to (...)
559
This article has been nominated for the 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 24 September 2019, the EU General Court (GC) handed down its judgment in HSBC v. Commission. Consistent with recent precedent, the GC reaffirmed the European (...)
1223
This article has been nominated for the 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 27 June 2019 the European Commission imposed a fine of €28 million on the Japanese imaging and optical products manufacturer Canon for “gun-jumping” by using a (...)
888
The European Commission has routinely considered potential harm to innovation as part of its merger assessments, particularly in R&D driven sectors such as pharmaceuticals and technology. In recent years, however, the Commission’s traditional innovation concerns have developed into broader, (...)
546
When a transaction meets the thresholds of the EU Merger Regulation, companies must notify and obtain clearance from the European Commission before implementing the transaction. This means that until clearance is obtained, companies should continue to operate independently (including (...)
485 Review
485
This last roundtable of the conference “New frontiers of Antitrust” (Paris, 21 February 2014) was dedicated to the “Restructuring firms in the context of crisis: What role for merger policy?». The objective of this roundtable is to explore in what respect the various issues involved in merger (...)
