Chandiok & Mahajan

India

Karan Chandhiok, considered by many to be the rising star of India’s antitrust bar, heads the slick competition practice at Chandhiok & Mahajan. The firm started out as a competition boutique in 2013, but has since grown to a full-scale law firm with a strong antitrust group. As of August 2018, the firm has three competition partners and 12 associates. Chandhiok says figures provided by the CCI confirm that the firm has worked on the largest number of recent leniency applications – besides those lodged in auto parts matters – which highlights the number of fresh cases in which the team is taking instructions. He is leading Hyundai Motor India’s appeal before the NCLAT against a $13.54 million fine that the CCI imposed after scrutinising tie-in arrangements between Hyundai and its dealers and handing down its first substantive resale price maintenance decision. He also represented Big Tree Entertainment in an abuse of dominance probe. In deal work, the firm advised chemicals producers Clariant and Huntsman on their $20 billion merger of equals; Wirecard on its purchase of Citibank’s merchant acquiring business, which was cleared in Phase I; and Venture Lighting on its acquisition of GE’s lighting business in India. The team also advised Integra LifeSciences on its $1 billion buyout of Johnson & Johnson’s neurosurgery business. Chandhiok crosses to the other side to represent the CCI in certain cases before the new National Company Law Tribunal as well as the Delhi High Court and Indian Supreme Court.