

Mark D. Powell
Mark has been advising clients on competition law issues for nearly thirty years. His practice has a particular focus on the interface between competition law and sector-specific regulatory requirements, in such areas as telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, energy, the media and transport. Clients benefit from his considerable experience handling regulatory clearance for complex mergers and acquisitions, including Zimmer/Biomet, Telia/Telenor (abandoned), Acergy/Subsea7, HBO/Ziggo, and Sanofi-Aventis/Zentiva. His work on Aegean/Olympic II was so persuasive that it resulted in the European Commission clearing it in a Phase II proceeding- the first time that it had cleared such a deal, having previously prohibited it. In addition, Mark has developed a significant track record representing and advising clients involved in cartel investigations, in areas including Euribor derivatives, nucleotides, synthetic rubber, candle wax, calcium carbide, ball bearings and power cables. He has helped clients to make successful appeals to the European Commission regarding matters ranging from infringement decisions to the re-negotiation of fines. Based in Brussels and London, he is able to advise international clients on both European and UK market investigation and merger cases. Mark was singled out for recognition in the first edition of Euromoney’s Expert Guide to the World’s Leading Competition and Antitrust Lawyers. He has been described by clients in The Legal 500 EMEA as "very knowledgeable with a pragmatic and commercial approach… [and] a convincing style and self-confidence which… is very persuasive." Chambers has noted that clients value Mark as "a charismatic lawyer with terrific business sense" who is "practical and savvy" and "enjoyable, hard-working and client-friendly".
Distinctions
Nominee, 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Procedure
Nominee, 2018 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Mergers
Winner, 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Cross-Border
Nominee, 2015 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, General Antitrust
Winner, 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Private Enforcement
Winner, 2012 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Anticompetitive Practices
Linked authors
19055 | Conferences
Articles
5922 Bulletin
44
While there is still no standalone foreign direct investment (FDI) screening at the EU level, the EU continues to push for a coordinated approach toward foreign direct investments into the EU. The key instrument is the EU Screening Regulation, which has entered into force on October 11, 2020. (...)
142
Last week, in response to the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the antitrust agencies in the United States and European Union issued policies that will affect, and may delay, merger filings and reviews. On March 13, 2020, the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Federal Trade (...)
78
On 12 July 2018, the EU’s General Court handed down 12 judgments relating to the power cables case. Among these was a judgment which confirmed that a parent company able to exercise all the voting rights in a subsidiary is presumed liable for any infringement of the EU competition rules by that (...)
343
The European Commission extends settlement procedure to abuse of dominance cases under Article 102 TFEU - fine imposed on Altstoff Recycling Austria reduced by 30% in exchange for its co-operation with the Commission* On 20 September 2016, the European Commission (“Commission”) issued its first (...)
826
Introduction On 10 March 2016, the European Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling annulling European Commission decisions requesting information from cement manufacturers, on the ground that the decisions did not sufficiently explain why the information requested was necessary . This (...)
179
The entry into force of the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the “CRA”) on 1 October 2015 marks the introduction of opt-out class actions in the UK, further transforming the legal landscape for private damages claims in the UK. Together with further changes as a result of the UK’s implementation of (...)
530
The European Court of Human Rights (the “ECtHR”) has ruled in the Vinci case that the circumstances surrounding the electronic removal of documents and computer files during a dawn raid violated two companies’ privacy rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”) . The case (...)
313
This article has been nominated for the 2015 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. DG Competition of the European Commission just published its 5th patent monitoring report. It covers patent settlements entered into in 2013. Each year, the (...)
164
The European Commission (“EC”) has long sought to eliminate so-called harmful tax competition, which it sees as undermining the integrity of the internal market, fair competition and the fiscal sustainability of the Member States. Although the EU Member States remain sovereign in this area, over (...)
106
On 9 April 2014, the European Commission adopted its new Energy and Environmental State Aid Guidelines (the “EEAG”) which will take effect from 1 July 2014 onwards, replacing the Environmental State aid Guidelines (“EAG”) from 2008, which did not cover State aid to the energy sector. The EEAG set (...)
202
This article has been nominated for the 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. The existence in several countries of “blocking statutes”, which prohibit the provision of economic information to foreign authorities or courts (or require prior (...)
193
This article has been nominated for the 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. Summary On 11 June 2013, the European Commission (“Commission”) adopted a proposal for a directive on how citizens and companies can bring damages claims under EU (...)
496
By its decision of 18 April 2007, the Commission imposed fines totalling approximately EUR 270 million on several Dutch brewers, including Heineken NV and its subsidiary Heineken Nederland BV, and Bavaria NV, for their participation in a cartel on the Dutch beer market between 27 February 1996 (...)
456
By its decision of 3 May 2006, the Commission imposed fines totalling over EUR 388 million on a number of companies for their participation in a cartel on the market for hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate (bleaching agents) between 31 January 1994 and 31 December 2000. Among the companies (...)
432
By its decision of 11 March 2008, the Commission imposed fines totalling over EUR 32 million on ten companies for their participation in a cartel on the international removal services market in Belgium between October 1984 and September 2003. In particular, the Commission imposed fines of EUR (...)
147
This article is the winner of the business category, anticompetitive practices section of the 2012 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. In an Opinion delivered on 10 February 2011, Advocate General (‘AG’) Sharpston of the European Court of (...)
340
Today, the Office of Fair Trading ("OFT") launched a review of barriers to entry, expansion and exit in retail banking.[1] The review comes at a time of when the UK Government has significant stakes in a number of major retail banks, which it will wish to divest over time. The purpose of the (...)
564
I. BACKGROUND The European Commission published the 24th February 2009 a Communication containing its long-awaited Guidance Paper on exclusionary abuses under Article 82 C(Commission Communication – Guidance on the Commission’s Enforcement Priorities in Applying Article 82 EC Treaty to Abusive (...)
366
For the third time this year, and the second time this week, the European Court of First Instance ("CFI") has overturned a decision of the EC Commission to block a merger. Once again, the CFI criticized the Commission’s factual findings and its analysis. Within hours of the judgment, (...)
3680 Review
1259
The steady growth of e-commerce continues to change the competitive landscape in which traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers operate. It is undeniable that this rapid growth is putting immense pressure on traditional retailers. Competition policies may have unwittingly accentuated the crisis (...)
901
This set of three papers is derived from the training session on the Private enforcement organized by the Concurrences Review that has held on 5th July 2012 in Brussels. In the first contribution, Frederic Jenny, chairman of the OECD Competition Committee, describes the main economic and legal (...)
1190
The e-book market is quite remarkable. The distribution’s economic models of this singular property are original and very different from one system to another. The U.S. and European litigations around the Apple’s practices and publishers, as well that the French law on the e-book price’s (...)
330
This third roundtable of the conference “New frontiers of Antitrust”, Paris, 10 February 2012, was dedicated to prescription markets and how competition law can deal with the principal/agent issue. This article considers how the phenomena described by economists as “prescription” should be taken (...)
Books

This two-volume Liber amicorum is a collection of tributes to Ian Forrester’s outstanding career and articles signed by prominent academics and practitioners around the world on the most current (...)