Competition Law: Recent Developments and Practical Guidance for In-house Counsel

Helen Nicklin, Counsel, Virgin Media, United Kingdom

We are living in an era of ever-increasing competition law enforcement and litigation. This session provides an update on recent developments and offers practical guidance for in-house counsel, covering both compliance and the practicalities of dealing with competition law investigations and litigation. We cover cartels, other anti-competitive agreements, abuse of a dominant position, market investigations and merger control from a UK, EU and global perspective, identifying the red flags to warn in-house counsel of increased competition law risk. Examples of areas currently receiving particular enforcement scrutiny include: information exchange between competitors, directly and indirectly through suppliers and customers; trade association activities; resale price maintenance; most favoured customer clauses; joint venture non-compete agreements; and access to key technology on “FRAND” terms. Industries particularly in the spotlight include financial services, technology, energy and healthcare.

Helen Nicklin is part of Virgin Media’s competition and regulatory affairs team, advising on a range of matters across the full suite of Virgin Media’s converged products and services consisting of TV, broadband, fixed and mobile telephony services. Helen has day-to-day interactions with regulators across all these areas and also works with government and policy makers to clarify and shape current and future regulation of key technology infrastructure and content distribution markets. Prior to Virgin Media, Helen spent 9 years in private practice as part of the competition team at Clifford Chance working on a number of high profile UK and EU mergers and advising on a range of behavioural and competition law compliance issues.