We each began professional life as advocates, zealous in our support of the causes upon which we were engaged. Each of us had the huge good fortune to work on big cases with good teachers, giants of the bar, and then the even huger fortune to work in professional maturity with skilled (...)


Ian Forrester
Ian Forrester has been a practitioner, author, academic teacher and judge. He has lectured on EC/EU legal and policy topics in many countries and published extensively on these themes, particularly competition, customs, dumping, pharmaceuticals, sport, the precautionary principle, and human rights. Honorary Professor and Honorary Doctor of Laws (2009) at Glasgow University, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel (1988), and Bencher, Middle Temple (2012). He is currently President of the Society of Franco British Lawyers. In April 2015 he was nominated by the UK to be a member of the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union and was sworn in later that year. His mandate came to an end with Brexit in February 2020. While on the Court, he sat on about 230 cases touching trademarks, competition, terrorist asset freezes, agricultural subsidies, state aids, public procurement, and civil service disputes. In each case, he sat with judges from 12 different countries in formations of three or five. Deliberations were conducted in French, the working language of the court. He was appointed a member of the newly created deontology committee of the court and participated in drafting the court’s first Code of Conduct for judges, dealing with such matters as judicial conduct, possible conflicts and recusals, and the handling of hearings. He represented the court on missions to other countries as well as participating in the collective running of a court serving 28 countries with 24 official languages, employing 2,200 people. When a practising lawyer he participated in cases before courts or competition authorities in the UK, Belgium, Greece, Kosovo, Japan, France, Belgium, Canada, South Africa, USA, Serbia as well as the European institutions in Brussels and the three EU courts in Luxembourg. He was a member of the Bars of Scotland, New York, England and Brussels. He argued several leading cases in the fields of football, computer software, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, health and safety regulation, state aids and publishing. These include Magill (compulsory copyright licensing) ; Bosman (football transfers) ; Microsoft (computer servers) ; IMS (compulsory licensing) ; Pfizer Animal Health (the precautionary principle) ; Government of Gibraltar v Council (constitutional status of Gibraltar Airport) ; GlaxoSmithKline (parallel trade in pharmaceuticals) ; Les Laboratoires Servier (settlement of patent disputes) ; Chalkor/Halcor (due process and judicial review) ; Canon (dumping) ; A and Others v National Blood Authority (whether a blood transfusion with undetectable hepatitis can be a ‘defective’ product) ; Bellona Foundation v EFTA (environmental protection). He was also involved in several European Court of Human Rights cases, including forcing a citizen to speak on pain of punishment even if the answer itself reveals punishable conduct (Al Fayed and Harrods : Fayed v The United Kingdom) ; press sources (Hans Martin Tillack : Tillack v Belgium) ; prisoner’s rights (Kalashnikov v Russia) ; fair trial and right to property (Karic and Djordjevic). He helped to achieve the liberation of Louis Henry Burns, an indigent prisoner on appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in New York from a conviction based upon a coerced confession. He established the pro bono programme of White & Case He has been involved in at least thirty arbitration matters, either as advocate for a party, or as expert witness on European law, or as arbitrator, from 1983 to 2014. The arbitrations have mostly been conducted under the auspices of the ICC in Paris, or the CAS in Lausanne ; and once before the ICSID in Washington. The ICC cases involved disputes about investment contracts, trade secrets, hotel construction, stolen technology, and a variety of other commercial conflicts. The CAS matters involved player transfers, treatment of injured players, broadcasting rights and the conduct of elections to governing bodies. The ICSID matter involved a shipping register and the respective duties of those affected by civil insurgency.
Distinctions
4725 | Conférences
Articles
7473 Bulletin
197
On 26 March 2015, the European Commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, announced a potential competition inquiry in the e-commerce sector. According to the Commission, the proposed inquiry is aimed at identifying and resolving cross-border barriers to e-commerce in (...)
757
On 5 March 2015, the European Court of Justice (CoJ) handed down its judgment in Versalis , concerning the increasing of fines for antitrust infringements where a company is found to be a repeat offender. The judgment raises important questions about the respect for the rights of defence in EU (...)
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 (...)
273
This article has been nominated for the 2015 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. MOFCOM Shows Teeth Against Gun Jumping* Summary On 20 March 2014, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (“MOFCOM”) issued a notice announcing (...)
291
As European competition law continues to prosper and as the European Commission continues to innovate, the role of the European Courts in Luxemburg continues to fascinate those who practice, teach or enforce. The Courts have an appellate function and a guidance function. In this foreword I will (...)
181
The level of fines imposed by the European Commission in competition cases has attracted controversy for more than ten years. The often deferential approach of the European courts to hearing appeals has also been criticised, but in many cases the courts have largely left untouched the (...)
161
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 antitrust rules. According to the Commission, the proposal serves to remove a number of practical difficulties which claimants face when (...)
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 (...)
1490
To be asked to contribute a foreword is pleasant, if that which is to be published is of good quality. Happily, such is the present case. e-Competitions, a child of this electronic century, has been publishing articles on competition topics since 2004. The mode of publication was so novel to me (...)
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 (...)
1182
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 (...)
13676 Revue
229
Assurer le respect des droits de la défense dans le cadre des procédures en matière de droit de la concurrence constitue l’un des exemples les plus difficiles de la mise en œuvre de l’obligation générale des institutions européennes d’être justes et équitables envers les citoyens. L’application du droit (...)
1357
Le développement de la pratique décisionnelle en droit de la concurrence a renforcé la nécessité d’un contrôle judiciaire. Le présent article propose un éclairage du contrôle juridictionnel en examinant 560 arrêts ou jugements provenant principalement des juridictions nationales, mais également de la Cour (...)
3316
En 2009 et 2010, de nombreux cercles et organisations se sont penchés sur la question du procès équitable en matière de droit de la concurrence. L’USCIB, l’ICC, l’OCDE et la Commission européenne, ainsi que des organisations professionnelles européennes, ont publié des contributions sur ce sujet. Ces (...)
3217
Enquêtes sectorielles : Complément ou substitut de l’action des autorités de concurrence ? Introduction générale Frédéric JENNY President, OECD Competition Committee President of the International board of the Review Concurrences Professor, Co-Director of the Centre Européen de Droit et d’Economie, (...)
5557
La Commission européenne tend de plus en plus à faire référence aux objectifs de l’Agenda de Lisbonne, et plus particulièrement à la compétitivité des entreprises européennes dans ses discours sur la politique communautaire de concurrence. L’Agenda de Lisbonne est présenté comme l’objectif prioritaire de (...)
Livres

This second edition of the Digest is enriched with a selection of more than 50 essays on European competition case law from the 27 European Union Member States, EU law, and US law. Each essay (...)

The purpose of this book is to compare and contrast EU competition case law with European Members States competition case law, and Members States competition case law with each other. To the best (...)