We offer clients pragmatic and cost effective solutions to help them develop business practices and relationships that minimize antitrust risk - or avoid it altogether - in key jurisdictions such as the United States, the European Union, China and Japan, and minimize the potential for costly investigations and litigation. The firm offers a full range of antitrust counseling to:
- assist in all aspects of distribution arrangements, including dealer terminations and advice on pricing strategies and price discrimination issues;
- review contractual arrangements that may raise issues of exclusive dealing, group boycotts, or other potential antitrust violations, including vertical export restraints which raise special issues in the European Union;
- assist in the formation and activities of joint ventures, including e-commerce platforms; and
- prepare custom-designed compliance programs to assure that clients conduct their day-to-day operations lawfully.
Part of the firm’s Antitrust Practice concerns the representation of trade associations and professional societies, counseling them and their members on a broad range of issues involving antitrust and trade regulation law. These include standard-setting issues, accreditation and certification membership rules, and policy positions.
We have extensive experience in the application of antitrust exemptions and immunities such as the Noerr-Pennington and state action doctrines, the McCarran-Ferguson Act, and the statutory and non-statutory labor exemptions. We also counsel clients concerning competition-related provisions in international trade agreements, and provide advice about both bilateral and multilateral international antitrust cooperation agreements.
In the European Union, we advise on the applicability of the conditional safe harbors of EU and national “block exemption regulations.” We have also handled and managed multi-jurisdictional reviews of global and regional horizontal cooperation agreements involving R&D, production and commercialization activities.