COMPETITION/ REGULATORY TEAM OF THE YEAR 2018

Sidley Austin and Gibson DunnWINNER

This year’s competition and regulatory award goes to a joint entry from Sidley Austin and Gibson Dunn. Sidley partner Stephen Kinsella and Gibson Dunn partner David Wood were co-counsel on arguably the most significant abuse of dominance case in recent times, acting for industry body ICOMP (Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace) against Google. ICOMP members Foundem and Kelkoo were being demoted or dropped from online search results pages, to be replaced by Google Shopping. Through a combination of acute legal analysis and a broader awareness campaign which led to more companies filing complaints and an intervention from main consumer body BEUC, Kinsella and Wood were rewarded with victory in June 2017, when the European Commission fined Google EURO2.42bn. Individual companies will now be able to pursue damages claims in national courts.

The judgment has widely been acclaimed as a precedent-setting result in a highly-charged sector. As global business becomes increasingly digitised, competition teams will have to wrestle with complex issues around online behaviour and search. ‘This was one of the top cases in an area of wide public interest, against a hugely sophisticated and well-resourced opponent,’ said the judges. ‘A great example of the importance of top-class lawyering. It’s a game-changer for online business.’

Highly commended: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, led by Alastair Chapman and Deirdre Trapp, was highly commended for its work advising Tesco on the £3.4bn merger with wholesaler Booker, which will create the UK’s largest food group and was the first retail-to-wholesale grocery merger examined by the CMA. The merger was cleared with no remedies.

Commended: Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance, led by Greg Olsen, advised Mastercard on a landmark CMA clearance with non-structural remedies of Mastercard’s £700m acquisition of Vocalink