Antitrust Compliance & Counseling
Delivering practical, real-world solutions to the complex antitrust issues our clients face.
WHY LOCKE LORD
Locke Lord’s antitrust lawyers routinely advise clients on the antitrust risks associated with business relationships they engage in with suppliers, distributors, customers, employees and other competitors.
The antitrust risks on which we advise include issues such as:
- Refusals to deal
- Contractual covenants not to compete
- “Most Favored Nation” clauses
- “Ancillary restraints” in joint ventures and other competitor collaborations
- “No-Poaching” agreements involving the hiring of employees
- “Benchmarking” and other exchanges of confidential information among competitors
- Pricing policies, including “Resale Price Maintenance” and “Minimum Advertised Price” policies
- “Bundled Discounts” and other types of price discounts and rebates
- Tying arrangements
- “Gun jumping” issues and access to confidential due diligence information associated with mergers and acquisitions
Our antitrust lawyers serve as outside antitrust compliance counsel for numerous trade associations and joint ventures composed of members that are competitors.
Included among our clients for antitrust compliance counseling are:
- A trade association composed of the leading manufacturers of refractive eye surgery equipment in the United States
- A professional association for commercial real estate practitioners from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe
- A trade association of Chief Risk Officers from most of the large property casualty and life insurers in North America
- A trade association comprised of most of the large apartment owners in Texas
Antitrust Compliance Policies and Training
We assist clients in developing and updating their written Antitrust Compliance Policies. These Policies are individually tailored to the particular client’s business and the industry in which it operates. Our antitrust lawyers also provide antitrust compliance training programs to our clients’ officers, in-house counsel and other employees. In the corporate area, we provide practical advice on the antitrust risks associated with the access to confidential business information during due diligence investigations that are required for many large transactions. We also plan and conduct internal antitrust investigations and compliance audits, both of which are often critical components of an effective antitrust compliance policy.