Antitrust, Competition & International Trade

We regularly advise a diverse range of clients, from major multinational corporations to privately held companies and trade associations, on issues arising from antitrust and competition regulation (including consumer protection and advertising matters), acquisition of companies in the US defense and homeland security industries by non-US entities, international trade regulation (including export control matters) and other forms of economic regulation (including government contracting issues). We offer know-how in the widely varied regulatory regimes of North America, Europe (including Central and Eastern Europe), Latin America and Asia.

Our greatest concentrations of resources are in Washington DC and Brussels, Belgium. From these two international regulatory centers, we provide antitrust and trade regulation counseling on business operations worldwide. Our lawyers are recognized experts in the field and pride themselves on responsiveness and client-driven problem-solving. When necessary, we have highly talented and experienced antitrust trial lawyers. Our trial teams have litigated a complete range of antitrust matters – from monopolization cases to dealer terminations to preliminary injunction matters.

Many of our antitrust, competition, trade regulatory lawyers can bring to bear direct experience with these practice areas, having spent portions of their careers with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Justice, the International Trade Commission or the European Commission. The breadth and expertise of the Squire Sanders antitrust and trade team allow us to achieve our clients' objectives in an expedited and cost-effective manner.

The group prides itself on its counseling ability – so that clients can avoid costly litigation through preventive counseling. Our clients routinely rely on our advice in a wide variety of contexts including the formulation and implementation of distribution programs, the structuring of licensing arrangements, the sharing of competitively sensitive information, participation in standards setting associations, and in the planning of complex business combinations that raise competitive issues. As with all the group's activities, our counseling efforts are often international in scope.

Practice Expertise

• Anticorruption Compliance & Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Antitrust Litigation & Government Investigations
• Antitrust Regulation of Mergers & Acquisitions and Other Business Combinations
• EU Regulatory
• Government Contracts
• International Trade Policy & Global Market Access
• International Trade Remedies and Enforcement
• International Transaction Regulations, Export Controls & Customs

Representative Experience

• Drafting and implementing FCPA, anti-money laundering, anti-boycott and export controls compliance provisions in Middle East agency agreement for large defense contractor.
• Defending a hospital and its managed care plan in a series of antitrust cases alleging a conspiracy to monopolize certain managed care and hospital markets.
• Settling an extremely significant antitrust case on behalf of the largest steel company in the world against its industrial gas supplier for its huge steel-making facilities in Northwest Indiana. The matter related to supply agreements for industrial gas supplied via an industrial gas pipeline owned and operated by the world’s largest industrial gas supplier. After the US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana denied the defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint, the defendant came to the bargaining table resulting in a settlement agreement that included new supply agreements with very significant costs savings to our client.
• Representing a US-based airline in connection with its proposed acquisition by another airline.
• Assisting an Italy-based high technology company to clear CFIUS review and bring the newly acquired companies into compliance with US export control requirements.
• Advising a client on the impact of Cuba sanctions laws in United States on certain stolen assets. We worked with the State Department on implementation of Helms-Burton Title IV.
• Assisting a US-based information security company to determine US, France and China export and import requirements and restrictions for dual use encryption technology and obtaining mass market treatment for the products from the US Commerce Department.
• Advising Advanced Testing Technologies, Inc., a US-based producer of automatic testing equipment for advanced commercial and military aircraft, in negotiating and drafting contracts and in obtaining US State Department approvals for the export of defense articles and defense services in support of NATO and Middle East programs involving automatic test equipment and direct manning personnel for the F-15, AWACS and other aircraft.
• Representing a world leader in engineering and manufacturing in its acquisition of a privately held leader in the development of information assurance technologies that enable secure networks for military, intelligence and law enforcement customers.
• Advising an investor in Mexico on the country’s tax and trade barriers which violate NAFTA and international trade rules. We worked together with our client and Mexico’s tax and competition authorities.