If you are the subject of a dawn raid by a competition authority (for example, the Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA) and need support, contact your usual Shoosmiths contact, or click here to find the contact details of a member of our National Competition Dawn Raid Service in an office near you.
Teams of lawyers from most of the firm’s 13 offices across the United Kingdom form the National Competition Dawn Raid Service. They stand ready to support businesses (including on-site at their offices) during the critical first 24 hours of the competition authority’s dawn raid. Importantly, our national footprint means that our lawyers should be able to mobilise and be at a client’s site within about one hour.
As well as this rapid response service, clients will have the benefit of the considerable experience of our competition law team in advising clients during dawn raids and the subsequent investigations. This will ensure the difficult issues that often arise during a dawn raid are addressed with a level-head and based on experience.
We also offer more general advice on managing a crisis. For example, we can readily involve experts from different disciplines such as dealing with the press and reputational management, public listed company obligations, and IT forensics. Our National Competition Dawn Raid Service is an element of the firm’s broader crisis response solution, Shoc 24.
Being prepared for a dawn raid and providing competition law training is something we undertake for clients as part of the firm’s broader compliance service. Please contact one of our team if you would be interested.
Recent competition experience includes:
- Successfully defending a pharmacy operator under investigation by the CMA for alleged excessive pricing of hand sanitiser products, leading to the CMA swiftly dropping the case against our client.
- Representing a party under investigation in a CMA airport facilities case, securing rapid case closure on behalf of our client (the CMA proceeded to impose a fine of £1.6 million in a related case).
- Representing Micronclean Limited in the CMA’s market sharing investigation into cleanroom laundries and successfully securing a 90% discount off the fine
- Advising a retailer involved in the CMA’s RPM infringement investigation into musical instruments, in which the CMA imposed a fine of £4.5 million Fender
- Advising an interested party in relation to the CMA’s investigation into Compare The Market’s use of MFNs, in which the CMA imposed a fine on Compare The Market of £17.9 million
- Acting for various individuals called in for interview by the CMA, including in relation to one of its investigations in the pharmaceuticals sector
- Advising a party during the dawn raid by the European Commission of its offices in Paris, including finding and working with IT forensic experts in relation to data comprising over one million documents that required analysis.
