Legal Skills: Competition Law: Competition Law and the in-house lawyer

Course Overview

No reasonably sized business, especially a business with aspirations to grow internationally, can hope to run efficiently and profitably without paying close attention to the many laws, both national and supra-national, that are aimed at stopping anti-competitive practices. These laws are constantly changing to match changes in the ways that commerce is conducted around the world and this fact is particularly true in the EU and UK.

In-house lawyers need to be completely up to speed with all these developments. This popular Hawksmere conference will give you the opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments and will ensure you and your organisation are not caught out in what is undoubtedly an increasingly complex area of business.

Audience

• In-house lawyers
• Legal advisers
• Commercial lawyers in private practice
• Competition specialists
• Company secretaries

Skills Gained

An outstanding team of expert speakers has been assembled to present this conference in order to give you:

• 1. A thorough understanding of the UK competition law regime and how it works in practice
• 2. An update on the latest developments in EU law and how it will affect your business
• 3. A checklist of competition law pitfalls in commercial agreements to help ensure costly mistakes are avoided
• 4. Practical advice on structuring and implementing compliance programmes
• 5. An understanding of the role of the Competition Commission and how it can affect you

Above all, this programme is the perfect opportunity for you to question a panel of experts on any aspects of this complex area which are of particular concern to you.

Course Outline

UK competition law update

• Developments under the Competition Act
• OFT decisions
• Appeals
• Developments in UK merger law
• Decisions
• Procedural changes
• Other developments in UK competition law

EU competition law update

• Cases under Article 81 - horizontal agreements and vertical agreements
• Sector inquiries
• Cases under Article 82
• Other developments in EC competition law

EU merger control

• The EU Merger Control reform package
• Role of the Merger Task Force
• Recent cases
• Judicial review

Compliance with competition law

• "Why should we worry about compliance?" - a review of the risks of competition law infringement
• "What steps can we take to ensure compliance?" - practical guidance on how to guard against infringement
• "Instilling a compliance culture" - key elements for a successful compliance programme
• "Keeping it going" - the importance of regular review and evalutation
• "What if we still infringe?" - compliance as a mitigating factor

The role and practice of the Commission

• What does the Commission do?
• The Commission's procedures
• Key recent developments
• The involvement of businesses and in-house lawyers in CC investigations

The role of the OFT

• Key developments in the OFT's enforcement of UK and EC competition rules. The session will set out the OFT's approach to enforcing competition law in the UK, addressing issues of particular relevance to in-house lawyer.

Checklist of competition law pitfalls in commercial agreements

• Competition law - general principles
• Restrictions in vertical agreements
• Restrictions in horizontal agreements
• Restrictions in technology licences
• Assessing and defining market share and dominant position

Legal Skills: Competition Law: Competition Law and the in-house lawyer / LE-CLC