Competition Litigation & Regulation

Competition law is fundamental to fair markets and innovation. It governs how businesses interact, ensuring they compete on merit and do not distort the market through anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominance, or unlawful mergers. In today’s digital economy, competition law is critical to safeguarding consumer choice, data integrity, and innovation.

Preiskel & Co is a specialist law firm focused on the tech, media and telecoms sectors with a leading competition practice. Our team is led by Tim Cowen, a former member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the UK’s specialist competition court. We advise clients across the full spectrum of UK and EU competition law, combining deep regulatory insight with litigation expertise and commercial acumen. Our team is ranked in Legal 500 and Chambers UK and for its formation of the Movement for an Open Web and subsequently initiating complaints and investigations representing industry players in many digital markets we were named Competition and Regulatory Team of the Year by The Lawyer in 2021.

Regulatory Advice & Policy Engagement

We provide strategic regulatory advice to businesses navigating complex competition and antitrust regimes. Our work spans:

•UK & EU Merger Control: Advising on Phase 1 and Phase 2 investigations before the CMA and European Commission, including in two sided markets and public interest cases.

•In the light of Tim Cowen’s experience on 26 second phase EU merger Cases, we have been appointed to the EU Commission’s Advisory Panel to advise on and address remedies in EU Merger Control. We can nevertheless advise on cases for private parties where we would be recused from working for the Commission.

•Governance & Risk Systems: Designing legal risk frameworks and audit systems tailored to technology and telecoms businesses.

•Compliance Training: Delivering bespoke programmes to ensure teams understand and mitigate competition law risks.

•State Aid & Public Resources: Advising on the compatibility of public measures with EU law and defending clients in investigations.

•Policy Thought Leadership: Our team contributes to the development of competition law through publications, roundtables, and discreet engagement with policymakers.

We have advised on landmark cases including the CMA’s investigations into Music & Streaming, Digital Advertising Markets, Google’s Privacy Sandbox, Mobile Ecosystems, Browsers and Cloud enquiries and the European Commission’s Ad Tech case.

We have recently filed formal Complaints to the EU and national authorities on behalf of the Independent Publishers Alliance, Movement for an Open Web and Foxglove legal.

Competition Litigation

We act for claimants and defendants in high stakes competition disputes across multiple jurisdictions. Our litigation practice includes:

•Private Actions for Damages: Representing clients in cartel and abuse of dominance claims before the High Court, CAT, and European courts.

•Multiple jurisdiction Strategy: Coordinating litigation and regulatory complaints across borders.

•Funding & Risk Management: Advising on litigation funding and structuring claims for commercial viability.

Our team was one of the main contributors to the EU Commission’s 2010 to 2017 investigation of Google’s Search practices for multiple publishers, as well as acting for images suppliers such as Getty Images and Maps businesses such as Streetmap and Hotmaps. We represented the trade association, the “Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace (ICOMP) which acted as a compendium complainant on the anticompetitive effects of Google’s practices across many different markets.

We led early cases for clients such as TradeComet and Foundem v s Google for Streetmap v Google, and for seven years for Connexity v Google.

We helped to establish the Movement for an Open Web which became the lead complainant in the EU Commission‘s Ad Tech case and on whose behalf we have acted in subsequent UK competition enquiries such as its investigation of Digital Advertising Markets, Mobile Ecosystems, Browsers and Cloud enquiries.

Corporate & Transactional Advice

We advise on competition law issues arising in commercial and corporate transactions, including:

•Vertical Agreements: Distribution, franchising, IP licensing, and technology transfer arrangements.

•Collaborative Structures: Joint ventures, outsourcing, and partial acquisitions.

•Merger Clearance Planning: Jurisdictional analysis, risk mitigation, and advocacy before regulators.

Our experience includes advising on mergers such as Tobii /Smartbox, Sky/Fox, BT/EE, and Facebook/WhatsApp, and we regularly contribute to industry guides on foreign investment and non economic merger control.

In the light of Tim Cowen’s experience on 26 second phase EU merger Cases, we have been appointed to the EU Commission’s Advisory Panel to advise on and address remedies in EU Merger Control.