Rachelle Sellek, Partner at Acuity Law

Competition, Regulatory & Trade

Lead Partner
Overview
Work
Team

Competition issues, at a national and international level, turn on the facts, circumstances and markets in which they emerge, so the combination of factors tend to be complex and technically challenging.

Competition authorities are increasingly exercising their wide-ranging powers by:

  • investigating and challenging joint ventures, mergers, market practices, cartels and/or other commercial arrangements;
  • handing out sanctions and/or fines for anti-competitive behaviour; and
  • intervening where necessary to tackle failing markets through regulation and/or reform.

With public and private enforcements, sanctions (including large fines), disputes, challenges and, ultimately, reputational damage at risk, competition law compliance has never been more critical.

We adopt a strategic, risk-based, practical approach to help you comply with, and navigate through, the complexities of competition laws and regulation, defend your commercial interests and challenge anti-competitive practices.

We advise on:

  • Mergers and joint venture clearances
  • Trade arrangements and export controls
  • Structuring commercial arrangements, strategic alliances, collaborations and transactions
  • Abuse of dominance and anti-competitive conduct
  • Cartels, market investigations and dawn raids
  • Compliance policies, audits and training programmes
  • State aid
  • Competition disputes and litigation
  • Seconded to and advising the Western Europe business unit of The Coca-Cola Company on UK and EU competition law matters, including European merger control rules, best practice training on anti-competitive behaviour, structural and commercial arrangements, and exclusivity and dominance in the UK and certain EU markets.
  • Advising UK Government, Scottish Government, local authorities across England and major telecoms providers on UK state aid clearances, EU General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) and wider competition law matters.
  • Representing a national transportation and logistics group and several other smaller logistic businesses in pursuing claims for damages against several major truck manufacturers following findings by the European Commission on involvement in a price-fixing cartel and breaking EU antitrust rules.
  • Advised a national managed services provider, who specialises in public healthcare contracts, in relation to the anti-competitive effect of the structure of the NHS’s supply chain contracts.
  • Advising a leading international geospatial data and technology business on competition law compliance and training, dawn raids, merger issues, market dominance and definition.
  • Advising medtech patent holders on competition law issues around pan EU patent/IPR licensing and contractual arrangements, and the application of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption (TTBE) to certain product or technology markets.
  • Advising a leading UK university with an international reputation for teaching and research excellence on a £multi-million IP commercialisation programme, including competition law, state aid and EU public procurement issues.
  • Advising extensively on the state aid issues arising from the spin-out and sale of publicly-owned assets.
  • Advising a university on the state aid issues arising from a £300m major development project, including the application of the Market Economy Investor Principle.
  • Advising a local authority on state aid compliance relating to the administration of various national and EU funding streams.

 

Accolades

  • The Time’s Best Law FIrms 2020
    Acuity Law

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