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Legal Focus
JANUARY 2013
The Changing Landscape of competition Law
Continuing our Legal Focus on the Changing Landscape of Competition Law, Lawyer Monthly speaks to Anthony Maton, Managing Partner of Hausfeld & Co LLP, a leading, claimant-focused litigation practice based in the City of London.
Please introduce yourself, your role and your firm.
Hausfeld & Co LLP specialises in Competition / Antitrust, Financial Services, Consumer and Human Rights law, very often with an international dimension. We currently act for hundreds of business claimants and individuals located throughout Europe and around the world who have incurred financial losses in relation to cartels operating across a range of industries. Many of these are not on the public record but of those that are they include the state railway companies of Germany, Italy & Holland; the Libyan State Oil industry; Emerson & Samsung; Travis Perkins plc; JLR, Volvo, IKEA & H&M. Hausfeld & Co adopts a business oriented, commercial and practical approach to litigation and we aim to achieve resolution of disputes on sensible terms as soon as this can effectively be reached.
As Managing Partner of Hausfeld & Co LLP, I specialise in competition and financial services litigation. I have extensive experience in complex international dispute resolution including litigation, arbitration, and mediation in a number of different jurisdictions. I have acted for governments, in regulatory investigations, for multinationals and for private business, and have worked in the U.S. and extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the Gulf. My recent experience in the competition field includes acting in the air passenger settlement against BA/ Virgin, acting against BA in the London arm of the global air cargo cartel litigation being handled by Hausfeld, developing the Cartel Key funding methodology for cartel claims in the London Court, acting on the Parker Settlement in the Marine Hose cartel, and being lead counsel on High Court claims with respect to the Paraffin Wax, Marine Hose, Car Glass, Carbon Graphite, and Methionine claims.
In preparation for wider reforms set to be made to the UK competition law regime, the office of Fair trading recently published revised rules setting out its new decision-making processes, attempting to speed up the enforcement of antitrust rules and increase engagement with the parties involved. What are the main points of these revisions?
At the outset, it should be said that we welcome legislative reform which strengthens and enhances competition law enforcement, and promotes competition in markets for the long-term benefit of consumers and small medium enterprises (“SME”) to which these reforms are primarily targeted.
The updated guidance on the Competition Act 1998 procedures follows a consultation process launched in March 2012. It updates the OFT's guidance originally published in March 2011, with some extra revisions, which include;
• Collective decision making, with final decisions to be made by a tribunal decision panel of 3. Currently, decisions are made by the same person handling the investigation.
• In those cases where the OFT is considering finding an infringement and imposing a financial penalty, parties involved will be able to make representations on key elements of the OFT’s proposed penalty calculation.
• Increased interactive oral hearings and “state of play” meetings.
• The OFT will also be publishing case opening notices and case-specific administrative timetables on its website.
In addition to the above changes, the OFT has also extended the trial of its procedural adjudicator role until its powers have been transferred to the Competitions and Market Authority which will replace the OFT in 2014 in