Morris is a Senior Associate in the Herbert Smith Freehills Competition, Regulation and Trade group, based in Brussels. Morris is a competition and international trade lawyer, with particular expertise in EU and UK antitrust, State aid and WTO law. He has significant experience in a number of sectors, including energy, fast moving consumer goods, financial services, telecoms, transport and logistics. Morris has represented clients before the EU and UK competition and regulatory authorities, and in litigation before the EU courts and at the WTO.
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Three intervention tools The FSR is a new EU regulatory regime that is essentially intended to “level the playing field” between EU operators and their competitors from non-EU Member States which are not subject to EU State aid rules and are consequently able to provide their companies with (...)
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On 1 June 2023 the European Commission adopted its revised guidelines on horizontal cooperation agreements (Guidelines) together with its revised horizontal block exemption Regulations on R&D and Specialisation Agreements. For an overview of the revised Guidelines see our blog post here. (...)
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On 28 February the CMA published its long-awaited draft guidance on sustainability agreements, setting out the circumstances under which collaboration between competitors aimed at protecting or enhancing sustainability may be compatible with competition law. The aim of the guidance is to (...)
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The EU has now formally adopted its new Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”), which will start to apply from mid-2023. The European Commission will shortly be publishing a draft Implementing Regulation, which will set out what must be included in notifications under the FSR and further (...)
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The EU has reached political agreement in relation to the much-anticipated foreign subsidies regulation (the “Regulation”), which should become operational next year. The Regulation essentially creates a new subsidy control regime for third country subsidies affecting the EU market and has the (...)
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On 28 April 2022, the UK’s Subsidy Control Bill received Royal Assent, becoming the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (the “Act”). Although the UK’s domestic subsidy control regime now has a statutory footing, most of the Act has not yet entered into force, meaning that the interim regime based on (...)
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On 25 March 2022, the UK Government published a consultation on how “subsidies of interest” and “subsidies of particular interest” are to be defined under the UK’s new subsidy control regime. These concepts are fundamental, as they determine which subsidies are to be referred to the UK’s (...)
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On 30 June 2021, the UK Government published its much-awaited Subsidy Control Bill. In this update, we explore the key aspects of the proposed UK subsidy control regime. We conclude with five key takeaways. Overview of the UK regime The Subsidy Control Bill establishes a UK subsidy (...)
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On 5 May 2021, the European Commission (Commission) issued its proposal for a Regulation on foreign subsidies distorting the EU market. This follows on from the Commission’s White Paper issued in June 2020 and the extensive public consultation that ensued. The primary objective of this (...)
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The EU State aid regime in its current form ceased to be applicable in the UK as at the end of 31 December 2020, when the Brexit transition period expired. Going forward, State aid or “subsidy control” in the UK will be based on the subsidy control chapter under the UK-EU Trade and (...)
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On 26 October 2017 the European Commission announced that it had opened a State aid investigation in relation to the UK’s Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) rules and specifically, the group financing exemption under the rules. Should the Commission conclude that the group financing exemption (...)
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In an unprecedented move, the European Commission has slashed the fine imposed on the ArcelorMittal group for its participation in a pre-stressing steel cartel, by around 80 per cent. On 30 June 2010 the Commission had fined ArcelorMittal, and 16 other producers, a total of around €518.5 (...)
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In a judgment delivered on 3 March 2011 in Cases T-117/07 Areva v European Commission and T-121/07 Alstom v European Commission, the General Court of the European Union (the ‘Court’) the Court confirmed the general rule that when a wholly-owned subsidiary that has infringed competition law is (...)
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The English Court of Appeal has rejected a creative attempt to use existing English civil procedure rules to craft an ‘opt-out’ style class-action. The matter concerned an action for damages arising from the international air freight cartel, in which the European Commission has recently fined (...)
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With the jurisdiction of England and Wales becoming an increasingly popular forum for competition law claims, potential litigants continue to observe with interest how the peculiarities of English civil procedure will be applied in the competition law context. This case concerned the English (...)
