Ariane Le Strat is a senior associate in the Competition & EU law team of Bird & Bird in London, advising on UK and EU competition law with a particular focus on distribution and e-commerce. She joined Bird & Bird in 2015 from the Competition and Markets Authority, where she worked as a case officer on a number of high profile investigations. Since joining the team, she has attended dawn raids by the CMA and the European Commission advising on privilege, compliance and seize and sift issues in real time. Her background on the enforcement side comes very useful when advising clients subject to competition investigations. She regularly provides strategic advice to clients including on the structure of their distribution arrangements ensuring compliance with the vertical agreement and technology transfer block exemption regulations. She also advises clients on UK and international merger control. In the last year, she has expended her expertise to contentious matters by acting for a claimant in a follow on cartel damages claim in the High Court.
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Introduction Following a comprehensive evaluation process which began in 2018, the EU Commission published on 9 July 2021 its long-awaited draft vertical agreement block exemption regulation (Draft VBER) and accompanying guidelines (Draft Guidelines). The current VBER and Guidelines, which (...)
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The long-awaited consultation document setting out the CMA’s proposals on the future treatment of vertical (supply chain) agreements in the UK is finally out. As expected, the CMA will recommend that the rules inherited from the EU following Brexit will be replaced, on their expiry in 2022, (...)
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Sustainability (or environmental) claims are increasingly part of the purchasing experience for consumers. Such claims can be made in the context of advertising, on product labels and within accompanying product information such as e-newsletters. Sustainability claims will typically state that (...)
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The well-known (and somewhat over-simplistic) paradox that data protection laws aim to keep personal data contained whilst competition law wants personal data to be more freely available is the premise behind the two UK regulators’ latest collaboration. In the last two years, the UK Data (...)
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In March 2021, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) published its revised Merger Assessment Guidelines (MAGs) along with a Quick Guide, complementing the revision of its Guidance on jurisdiction and procedure, which was published in December 2020. The updated MAGs underpin the CMA’s (...)
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The current Vertical Agreement Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) and its accompanying guidelines provide the framework of competition law regulation for suppliers and distributors across the EU. It is due to expire in May 2022. The VBER was retained into UK law following Brexit ensuring (...)
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The impact algorithms continue to have on market dynamics has been under scrutiny by competition authorities around the world in recent years. On 19 January 2021, the CMA published a report, following its investigation into algorithms and their potential harms on competition law. The paper (...)
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The Trade and Cooperation Agreement will govern the future relationship of the UK and the EU. This article will examine some key areas to note for Competition law, reviewing important changes to state aid regulation and the Competition and Market Authority’s ("CMA") function. Introduction (...)
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Introduction On the 11th December 2020, the UK Supreme Court (“SC”) handed down its judgment in the case between Walter Hugh Merricks, CBE (“Merricks”) and Mastercard Incorporated (“Mastercard”). The judgment concerns Merricks’ Collective Proceedings Order (“CPO”) application to pursue a (...)
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Having fined Compare The Market (‘CTM’) £17.9 million for imposing wide ‘most favoured nation’ (‘MFN’) clauses in its agreements with home insurance companies, on 9 February 2021 the Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) released the non-confidential version of its infringement decision. (...)
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For decades the Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") and its predecessor, the Office of Fair Trading ("OFT"), have worked in symbiosis with the European Commission ("Commission") on competition law enforcement and merger investigations. Following the UK’s decision to leave the EU and at (...)
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Introduction The current Vertical Agreement Block Exemption Regulation (‘VBER’), has been in force since 2010, a mere ten years. Yet it is hard to think of another decade in which the commercial landscape has changed as dramatically. The gradual shift away from the high street to online (...)
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In the last few years, franchising has become an increasingly popular distribution structure across the EU. A franchise is a vertical agreement, and therefore should not contain any of the hard-core restrictions set out in the VBER in order to benefit from the block exemption. Nonetheless, it (...)
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The UK exited the EU on 31st January 2020. By virtue of the transition period in the Withdrawal Agreement, EU law will continue to apply in and in relation to the UK only until the 31st December 2020. The EU Treaties, EU free movement rights and the general principles of EU law will then cease (...)
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In the context of increasing enforcement in the digital sector, the CMA published its Digital Markets Strategy ("DMS") in July 2019. It aims to ensure a level playing field where all businesses can compete on the merits of their offering. The DMS sets out strategic aims supported by the (...)
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In recent years, the UK CMA has focussed many of its investigations on the pharmaceutical sector. This is partly due to the fact that in the UK, the National Health Service is a public funded body which bears most of the cost of the majority of medicines. Therefore, going after (...)
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On 17 April 2018, the CMA carried out a dawn raid at the premises of Fender Musical Instruments Europe Limited ("Fender"), a guitar manufacturer based in England, launching an investigation under Chapter I of the Competition Act 1998 ("CA98") and Article 101 TFEU. Section 27 of the CA98 (...)
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Sainsbury’s and Asda are the second and third largest grocery retailers in the UK respectively, and represent two of the four largest online retailers of delivered goods in the UK. Their networks include supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol filling stations. Both parties also retail (...)
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In the event of a UK competition law infringement, the CMA can seek a Competition Disqualification Order ("CDO") for up to 15 years against (i) any director of company who has committed a breach of competition law and (ii) if the court considers that the individual’s conduct as a director (...)
