Professional notice
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PwC had a busy year across its major jurisdictions and beyond, helping clients on cases across Europe and Africa.
- Advised major clients in South Africa and Mauritius
- Worked on complex competition litigation matters
- Conducted market analysis for mergers and other cases
| Global heads | N/A |
| Home jurisdiction | UK, Spain, The Netherlands, Germany |
| Total size of firm | 200 |
| Competition economists | 34 |
| % of firm specialised | 17% |
| Who’s Who Legal: Competition nominees | 1 |
| Group one | 8 |
| Group two | 12 |
| Group three | 9 |
| Group four | 5 |
| Lateral hires | 1 |
| Departures | 2 |
| Internal promotions |
PwC had another strong year applying economics in a number of competition cases, including market investigations, mergers, state aid matters and competition damages litigation. Of more than 200 economists in practices around the world, 34 spend the majority of their time on competition. The firm focuses its work in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, with Luisa Affuso leading the biggest team, in London. This year the team welcomed a new senior member, Pietro Crocioni, who joined the London practice in March 2016 as a senior manager. He was previously a principal economist in the chief economist team at Ofcom, the UK competition and regulatory authority in the communications sector.
On the merger front, the London team assisted Jersey Telecom on its planned three-to-two acquisition of mobile phone operator Airtel-Vodafone in Jersey and Guernsey. The team conducted a full economic analysis to demonstrate that the Channel Islands market would have been unlikely to sustain three operators given its scale and the operators’ investment requirements. Also in the UK, PwC gave confidential advice to the owners of a chain of retail stores that was being acquired by a larger retail chain. The merger was ultimately approved after a Phase II investigation by the CMA. In the Netherlands, PwC helped a pharmaceutical merger clear the competition authority’s regulatory standards, albeit with remedies.
PwC had a big year on the litigation and behavioural front, helping out on competition cases in the UK, Spain, South Africa, Mauritius and more. Notably in South Africa, PwC assisted South African Airways in a complex damages litigation following on from a finding by the competition tribunal of abuse of dominance. In Italy, PwC is currently assisting a client in a major investigation by the Antitrust Authority of alleged bid rigging of public procurement, which is based on the authority’s belief that bidding behaviour indicated an agreement to allocate the market among the major operators. The case is ongoing and will run until October 2017.