Duncan Liddell is a partner in Ashurst’s competition and EU law practice, based in London. He specialises in contentious and non-contentious UK and EU competition law. He has considerable experience in advising a wide range of clients on matters before the EU Commission, UK Competition and Markets Authority, UK sectoral regulators, and the UK and European Courts. He advises across a broad range or sectors but has particular expertise and knowledge in relation to the financial services sector and in the media and communications sector. Duncan advises clients across the full spectrum of competition law issues including : merger control, compliance, enforcement investigations by competition authorities (e.g. into allegations of abuse of dominance, or cartel behaviour), sectoral and market investigations, and competition law litigation
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On 28 February 2023, the Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") published its promised draft guidance on the application of the Chapter 1 prohibition to sustainability agreements between businesses operating at the same level of the supply chain ("Draft Sustainability Guidance"). The CMA is (...)
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On 31 August 2021, the CMA launched a public consultation on the settlement chapter of its ’Guidance on the CMA’s investigation procedures in Competition Act 1998 cases’ (the "Guidance"). The amendments would require that, as a condition of settlement, businesses under investigation will not (...)
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On 18 August 2021, the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT") certified the application by Mr Walter Merricks CBE to bring an opt-out class action on behalf of 46 million UK consumers who suffered loss as a result of anticompetitive interchange fees imposed by Mastercard between 1992 and 2008. (...)
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Roland UK ("Roland") appealed the level of the penalty imposed by the Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") for engaging in resale price maintenance ("RPM") in relation to the supply of electronic drums. Roland argued that the Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT") should reduce the penalty (...)
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On 14 April 2021, the UK Court of Appeal upheld a decision of the High Court confirming the application of concealment provisions in the Limitation Act 1980 when calculating the deadline for bringing a cartel damages claim in the High Court. Key takeaways The UK Court of Appeal has confirmed (...)
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On 28 January 2021, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") upheld a ruling of the General Court finding that an information request issued by the EU Commission, as part of its investigation into Qualcomm’s predatory pricing practices, did not breach the principles of necessity and (...)
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The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance for businesses to help them understand how to avoid participation in sustainability agreements raising competition law issues that can have serious consequences for those businesses. Recognising that many sustainability (...)
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On 9 December 2020, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") set aside a judgment of the General Court upholding a 2016 decision by the European Commission ("Commission") to make binding commitments offered by Paramount on cross-border pay-TV services. This is the first time that a commitment (...)
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On 26 November 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") announced that it had fined the pharmaceutical companies Teva and Cephalon EUR 60.5 million for agreeing to delay for several years the market entry of a cheaper generic version of Cephalon’s drug for sleep disorders, modafinil, after (...)
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Lower notification thresholds under UK merger control for certain additional sectors impacting national security entered into force on 21 July. The lower thresholds now cover transactions related to the development, production, supply or research of : artificial intelligence (new) cryptographic (...)
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Spire Healthcare, a private healthcare provider, and six consultant ophthalmologists have been fined for their roles in facilitating and arranging to fix the price of initial consultations between different consultants at a Spire hospital in the north of England. Whilst individual consultants (...)
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On 2 April 2020, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") delivered its judgment in Budapest Bank on a reference for a preliminary ruling from Hungary’s highest court. The judgment confirms the important limitations that apply before competition authorities and courts are able classify (...)
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On 6 March 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") cleared the proposed acquisition of joint control over INWIT by Telecom Italia ("TIM") and Vodafone in case M.9674, combining the parties’ Italian telecommunications tower holdings as part of their 5G roll-out plan. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - (...)
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