Ciara is a partner in the Antitrust, Competition and Economic Regulation at Hogan Lovells in Brussels. She spent 6 years in Lovells’ London office before transferring in 1999 to the Brussels office where she is currently based. From 1992 to 1993 Ciara worked at the European Commission on the PHARE programme where she was jointly responsible for drafting the Commission’s public procurement guidelines for Contracting Authorities for Services and Supply Contracts in Eastern Europe. Since qualifying into the Antitrust, Competition and Economic Regulation practice in 1995 Ciara has focussed on advice in relation to public procurement, particularly in the context of PFI/PPP projects, ever since. Her work in this field covers advisory work for public sector purchasers, utilities and bidders, transaction related issues in the context of PPP, outsourcings and development agreements, and litigation before both the UK and European Courts. On the competition front, Ciara has worked in both London and Brussels. She regularly represents clients before the UK competition authorities and has competition and regulatory experience in a number of utility sectors such as water and electricity. Ciara has also represented clients in front of the European Commission in EC Merger Regulation Notifications, cartel investigations, and State aid notifications, as well as before the European Courts in both competition and public procurement cases.
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The UK Government has been busy adding flesh to the bare bones of the domestic subsidy control regime that has been in place since the start of 2021 following the signing of the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). The Subsidy Control Bill introduced before Parliament on 30 June (...)
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Competition/antitrust laws generally require rival firms to operate on the market independently of each other and tolerate cooperation between competitors only in limited circumstances where any resulting loss of competition is clearly offset by consumer benefits. But as businesses scramble to (...)
