We are involved in significant matters of antitrust and competition law in the US and Europe. For example:

International

• GE Power Systems. We advised on the competition law aspects of GE Power Systems' acquisition of PII Group Ltd, the world leader in pipeline in-line inspections and integrity management services for the oil and gas industry, from Hg Capital. Of the 45 countries within which PII Group Ltd. operated, we successfully identified the requirement for, managed and obtained consent within the first phase of enquiry, from nine countries under their merger control regimes.

• Acting for BASF and Lonza in their individual defenses of actual and potential civil litigation claims by third parties in the US and Europe in relation to the 'Vitamins Cartel.'

• Acting for the Computer & Communications Industry Association in relation to various matters before both the EU Commission and the US Courts concerning the cases against Microsoft Corporation.

United States

• Credit Lyonnais Rouse, Ltd. In re Copper Antitrust Litigation. We are national trial counsel for Credit Lyonnais Rouse, Ltd. in the federal and state antitrust cases arising out of an alleged cartel in the global copper market involving Sumitomo Corporation from 1992 to 1996.

• Abbott/Sanofi. We represented Abbott Laboratories in its acquisition of the US parenteral products business of Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, Inc. After an intensive FTC investigation, the deal closed without government challenge.

• Aetna/US Healthcare/NYLCare/Prudential. We represented Aetna in three major acquisitions of competing HMOs. Aetna's 1996 acquisition of US Healthcare for $8.9 billion was the largest health care merger in dollar terms in US history up to that time and was followed by the $1 billion acquisition of NYLCare, both of which received rapid approval.

Europe

• Successful clearance from the UK's Office of Fair Trading in relation to the £600 million hostile public acquisition by Persimmon Homes plc, one of the UK's leading home builders, of Beazer Group, another leading UK home builder.

• We were counsel to Enron Energie GmbH, a subsidiary of the US Energy Company Enron Corp., in the RWE/VEW merger proceedings before the German Cartel Office and in the Veba/Viag merger proceedings before the European Commission. In substantially parallel findings, both antitrust authorities accepted Enron's market analysis that the mergers would lead to the establishment of a duopoly and imposed severe remedies on the merging parties.

• We represented On Guard Plus Ltd in an administrative appeal in Spain in relation to a procurement contract and subsequent complaint to the European Commission alleging abuse of a dominant position by the winner.

• We represented Monsanto Corporation in its appeal to the European Court of Justice concerning interpretation of an EU Directive.