Professional notice
| Global heads | Nils von Hinten Reed, Barbara Veronese, Mark Conaty, Tom Hird and Jason Ockerby |
| Home jurisdiction | UK |
| Total size of firm | 25 |
| Competition economists | 20 |
| % of firm specialised | 80 |
| Who’s Who Legal: Competition nominees | 5 |
| Group one | 6 |
| Group two | 5 |
| Group three | 4 |
| Group four | 5 |
| Lateral hires | N/A |
| Departures | 1 |
| Internal promotions | 1 |
CEG Europe may be small, but it is present in a range of European countries as well as Australia. And it packed plenty of high-profile work into the research period.
The team is advising German supermarket chain Metro in its sale of its Real hypermarket chain to real estate investor Redos. The deal was initially announced in May 2019 and notified in October.
The consultancy is providing economic advice in two separate follow-on damages claims related to the European Commission’s Trucks cartel decision. The first, in the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal, sees it advising Suez Groupe, Veolia Environment and Wolseley UK in its damages claim against truck manufacturers DAF, Renault/Volvo, Man, Iveco and Daimler. In the Netherlands, CEG is advising Stichting Trucks Cartel Compensation, which is acting for members of Italian road haulage associations in claiming follow-on damages against DAF, MAN, Volvo and Iveco.
In more follow-on damages work, the team is advising Sainsbury’s in the supermarket’s interchange damages claims against Mastercard and Visa. In July 2018, the UK Court of Appeal upheld Sainsbury’s appeal against the two financial services companies and referred the case to the Supreme Court and the Competition Appeals Tribunal. Also in the UK, CEG advised German electronics retailer Media Saturn in its damages claim against Philips, Panasonic, Samsung, LG and Toshiba following the European Commission’s Colour Picture Tubes cartel decision. In May, the High Court of England and Wales rejected an attempt by Toshiba and Panasonic to strike out the claim.
In authority investigations, the consultancy advised Linde and Linde Medicale Italia in a probe by the Italian competition authority into tender participation. The case was closed with no infringement being determined. It also worked for Unilever in a complaint to the Dutch competition authority regarding the behaviour of one of the company’s competitors, which involved the economic analysis of portfolio discounts in the out-of-home consumer goods market. It also advised logistics company UPS in defending itself against accusations by the Turkish competition authority that the company applied vertical restrictions.
CEG is a leading economic consultancy with offices in Brussels, Düsseldorf, London, Milan, Rotterdam, Sydney and Zürich. We apply economic and financial analysis to address competition, regulatory and damages issues.
CEG is listed among the world’s leading competition economics practices by the Global Competition Review. Our senior team is consistently rated by peers and clients in the list of recommended experts.
CEG helps clients to prepare their response to a wide range of issues. Using a combination of economic and financial theory, quantitative techniques and industry knowledge, we advise on case strategy, provide input into client submissions and prepare expert reports. We have presented before government agencies and acted as experts in courts and arbitral tribunals across the globe.
CEG brings together experienced economists from competition and regulatory agencies, industry and academia. We rigorously apply economic theory and quantitative techniques to offer insightful and dependable advice. Our advice takes full account of the theoretical and practical issues required for effective competition and regulatory advice.