We help you ensure that your company’s supplier and distributor agreements comply with the competition law rules. If they don’t, we help you protect your company’s interests, whether you want to bring your agreements into compliance without undermining their commercial purpose or you want to terminate an illegal clause that your company has been subjected to.

We assist with issues concerning e.g.:

• Agreements on distributor prices, including retail price maintenance, minimum resale prices, recommended prices, etc.
• Agreement on exclusive purchasing and supply
• Limitations of distributor’s sales, including restrictions of online sales
• Selective distribution systems
• Non-compete obligations

We help you and your company navigate the complex rules for cooperation and agreements between competitors so you avoid the often-grave consequences of an unwitting breach, which can even include imprisonment. We help you ensure that your company complies with these rules while still being able to operate in a practical and commercially desirable manner. If your company – as a competitor, supplier, or customer – has been affected by a cartel or another illegal cooperation agreement, we help you enforce your rights in relation to the competition authorities as well as the companies involved.

We assist with issues concerning e.g.:

• Cartel agreements, e.g. on price coordination, market division, or bid rigging
• Cooperation agreements between competitors
• Consortium agreements
• Exchange of information between competitors
• Rules and communication of trade organizations

We advise companies with a strong market position (dominant undertakings) on the special competition rules that apply to such companies. We help assess whether a company is, in fact, subject to these rules, and if so, we help ensure that the company’s behavior (typically in relation to customers and suppliers) complies with these rules. If you are a supplier, customer, or competitor of a dominant undertaking, we help you ensure that the dominant company does not abuse its strong market position to the detriment of your company.

We advise on all issues related to the rules for dominant undertakings, including e.g. issues concerning:

• Excessively high prices
• Excessively low prices (predatory pricing)
• Unfair conditions for sales and purchases
• Rebates of dominant undertakings
• Exclusivity agreements
• Refusal to supply and “margin squeeze”
• Tying and bundling of products

We represent our clients in competition law damages cases. We assist with all parts of the process in these often high-value and high-complexity cases, right from the tactical considerations about settlement negotiations and where to bring the case in order to give your company the best chances to the practical handling of the case before the courts. We do not just have expertise on the competition rules, but also specifically on damages claims. Our extensive experience with competition economics enables us to assist our clients with the court appointed expert opinion procedure that is often crucial in these cases.

We also represent our clients in criminal competition law cases arising when a competition law case is handed over to the prosecution in order to bring personal fining or even imprisonment charges. We represent companies as well as individuals charged with such offences. We do this throughout the whole criminal justice process so that the case can be closed or decided with the best possible result.

We help our clients design and implement compliance programmes that can protect the company against inadvertent competition law violations and the grave consequences that such violations can entail. We create tailor-made compliance materials based on the needs and risk profile of the company, and we carry out compliance training of those employees of the company that are most at risk of stepping out of bounds.