Practices

Antitrust and Competition

Why Cooley

Cooley’s antitrust & competition team handles all aspects of antitrust and competition law matters – including M&A deals, joint ventures, government investigations, intellectual property licensing, distribution practices and litigation – for clients at every stage. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 corporation or a growing company, our experienced lawyers bring a transatlantic perspective to every issue you face, helping you maneuver through regulatory red tape to protect your business and achieve your goals.

We have a strong history of protecting and defending companies in transformational merger review, bet-the-company transactions, government investigations and high-stakes litigations, with a focus on high-tech and life sciences industries. Our team of antitrust & competition lawyers are spread across key antitrust enforcement centers in Washington, DC, New York, San Francisco, Brussels and London, and includes a former acting associate attorney general for the DOJ who was responsible for overseeing the Antitrust Division and a former assistant director of the FTC Bureau of Competition. For our market leadership, we are consistently recognized as a top-tier antitrust practice by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 and Global Competition Review.

Cooley’s antitrust & competition team is part of our CooleyREG offering, through which we combine an understanding of the impact of disruptive advancements – and the regulatory issues that impose risk and slow progress – to help our clients navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape.

Antitrust & competition areas of practice

Mergers & acquisitions

  • Structuring transactions and negotiating contractual terms allocating antitrust risk
  • Advising on US, China, EU, UK, Germany and other competition filing requirements
  • Counseling regarding pre-merger information exchange and pre-closing integration planning
  • Proactively representing clients before antitrust agencies to secure clearance quickly
  • Responding efficiently and rapidly to second requests and Phase II investigations
  • Advocating effectively before senior officials to obtain clearance, working closely with leading economic experts
  • Negotiating consent decrees and EU commitments, where warranted, to allow clients to complete proposed deals and, when necessary, litigate

Distribution arrangements, joint ventures and collaboration agreements

  • Advising on minimum and maximum resale price maintenance, exclusive dealing, market share and loyalty discounts, bundled discounts, tying, aftermarket issues, price discrimination, etc.
  • Structuring research, manufacturing and marketing ventures
  • Counseling on antitrust issues as joint ventures and collaborations are implemented, including pricing structures, information sharing and geographic divisions
  • Defending existing or prospective arrangements before federal and state antitrust authorities and in federal court
  • Advising on the appropriate scope of benchmarking, information exchanges and trade association activities

Intellectual property

  • Structuring existing and prospective licensing arrangements to avoid antitrust pitfalls
  • Advising companies on strategic IP asset management, including ways to exploit intellectual property portfolios within the confines of antitrust law
  • Navigating investigations before US and EU antitrust enforcement agencies, including those involving the licensing and enforcement of intellectual property
  • Representing parties on antitrust counterclaims in IP litigation
  • Advising on settlement of IP litigation, notifying required agreements to federal agencies and defending investigations of settlements
  • Advising on standard setting, including disclosure of intellectual property, fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) licensing obligations, and joint negotiation of licensing terms in standard setting

Government and market investigations

  • Representing targets of government investigations, negotiating and responding to subpoenas and civil investigative demands, defending depositions, preparing white papers, working with economic experts, and advocating for client practices
  • Representing complainants to encourage government enforcement and working with agency staff to challenge anticompetitive practices
  • Representing third parties to minimize burden and cost of complying with government demands for information and documents

Criminal and cartel investigations

  • Representing corporate entities and individuals in federal, state and international criminal investigations and trials related to business conduct alleged to violate antitrust and related laws
  • Defending against cartel and non-cartel antitrust proceedings before the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, and the German Federal Cartel Office, as well as the US DOJ

Litigation

  • Representing clients in civil litigation for damages and injunctive relief under the federal Sherman, Clayton and Robinson-Patman Acts, state antitrust and unfair competition laws
  • Litigating class actions and claims arising from agreements, allegedly exclusionary conduct, M&A, and enforcement of licensing and similar agreements
  • Counseling on disputes involving intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights and trade secrets)

Consumer protection

  • Handling federal and state consumer protection investigations, including deceptive and unfair advertising, marketing practices, privacy, data security, and financial practices