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Curriculum Vitae
Summary
All specialist areas
Commercial Law
Competition/Regulatory
European Community Law
Public & Administrative Law and Human Rights
Telecommunications and Media
VAT & Customs Law
  • What the Directories Say

On competition law, Chambers UK, 2010 regard Meredith as " "bright and hard-working - a definite star of the future." He is a former economist and recently acted for T-Mobile in the Court of Appeal in its successful appeal of a decision by the CAT over the scope of licences granted to mobile network operators."

"On the junior front, the "wonderfully bright and creative" Meredith Pickford has "a huge advantage in understanding the dense arguments of telecoms law due to his background as an economist." An expert in public law, he knows the regulatory regime inside out and commands a huge following that includes long-standing client T-Mobile. He represented the company in the Court of Appeal in a successful appeal against a decision by the CAT in a case concerning the scope of licences granted to mobile operators." - Chambers UK, 2010

Legal 500, 2009 recommends Meredith Pickford as a Leading Junior on EU and competition law. 

On Competition and EU law: "Meredith Pickford not only "has tremendous economic skills," but is also "a smooth character and a good opponent." He regularly appears before the Court of Appeal and the High Court, and is seen as "bright, dedicated and a definite star of the future."" - Chambers UK, 2009

On Telecommunications: "Meredith Pickford impresses with his “tremendous economic skill and experience in legal competition matters.” He advises T-Mobile, Samsung and Cable & Wireless, with telecoms matters, making up a significant proportion of his practice. His recent work includes five major telecoms competition cases in the High Court and two appearances in the Court of Appeal." - Chambers UK, 2009

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Meredith Pickford

MA (Hons) Economics, Cambridge (First Class), Diploma in Law (City University)
Call date: 1999

Summary

Meredith is a former economist who is ranked by Chambers UK in 'band 1' of leading juniors in both Competition / European and Telecommunications law, and is similarly profiled as a leading junior in Legal 500.  Described as "one of the very best juniors at the bar", "wonderfully bright and creative", "articulate and clever" with "tremendous economic skill and experience in legal competition matters", Meredith is also considered to be "awfully well informed and utterly assured in all his dealings" ... "unstuffy, very concise and just excellent on his feet" and "a competition lawyer with real commercial nous".

Meredith appears in damages actions, claims for interim injunctions and challenges to regulatory decisions, and has considerable experiences of cases which raise further issues such as conflict of laws and interaction with intellectual property law. In addition to involvement in cases across all main industry sectors he has particular experience in regulated markets such as media and telecommunications (where he is recognised as "the best of the juniors" at Monckton), water, electricity, gas, financial services and transport.

Clients include or have included T-Mobile, Samsung, Cable & Wireless, Alcatel-Lucent, Carphone Warehouse (Talk Talk), FA Premier League, ITV, Channel 4, National Grid, ScottishPower, Dŵr Cymru (Welsh Water), Scottish Water, Morrisons, P&O, Stena, Dow Chemical, OFT, Ofcom, Ofwat and Ofgem.

Junior Counsel to the Crown (B Panel, appointed February 2007)

Prizes / Scholarships: Davies Prize for Economics (received second highest first in University); Winner, Rosamund Smith Cup (Middle Temple Mooting Competition); Diplock Scholarship. 

Recent and On-going work

Court of Appeal

  • National Grid v Ofgem: abuse of dominance (pending)
  • H3G v Ofcom [2009] EWCA Civ 683: telecommunications regulation
  • Ofcom & T-Mobile v Floe [2009] Civ 47: telecommunications regulation / competition law
  • T-Mobile & O2 v Ofcom [2008] EWCA Civ 1373: jurisdiction of CAT
  • Welsh Water (Dŵr Cymru) v Albion Water [2008] EWCA Civ 536: competition - margin squeeze / jurisdiction

High Court

  • Nokia v IPCOM (Ch D): competition / IP / FRAND
  • Ericsson v Samsung (Ch D): competition / IP / conflict of laws / FRAND
  • H3G v T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and Orange (Comm Ct): competition - alleged breach of Art 81 and 82 / damages
  • SanDisk v Sisvel & others (Ch D): competition - interim injunction / conflict of laws / damages / licensing of IP
  • Cooper Tyre & Rubber v Shell, Dow, Bayer (Ch D): - damages / conflict of laws / price-fixing
  • Morrisons v OFT (Admin Ct): public law challenge to OFT decision to issue press release (together with related defamation action)
  • Truphone v T-Mobile (Ch D): interim injunction / competition - refusal to purchase
  • Cityhook v Cable & Wireless and others (Ch D): competition - alleged collusion / damages
  • Cithook v OFT, Alcatel & others intervening (Admin Ct): regulatory judicial review
  • Excelerate v Ofgem (Admin Ct): regulatory judicial review
  • ScottishPower v Ofgem (Admin Ct): regulatory judicial review
  • T-Mobile & others v Oftel (Admin Ct): regulatory judicial review

Competition Appeal Tribunal

  • National Grid v Ofgem: abuse of dominance
  • Carphone Warehouse v Ofcom: pricing of wholesale broadband products
  • T-Mobile, Orange, BT, H3G et al v Ofcom: termination rate disputes
  • T-Mobile v Ofcom: donor conveyance charge
  • Vodafone v Ofcom: mobile number portability
  • BT v Ofcom, H3G v Ofcom, O2 v Ofcom: mobile call termination regulation
  • Floe v Ofcom, T-Mobile intervening: wireless regulation / refusal to supply
  • VIP v Ofcom, T-Mobile intervening: wireless regulation / refusal to supply / interim relief
  • Wanadoo v Ofcom supported by BT (CAT): margin squeeze in broadband
  • Cable & Wireless, Alcatel et al in Cityhook v OFT supported by Cable & Wireless and others: alleged collusion
  • Competition Commission
  • BT v Ofcom, H3G v Ofcom: mobile call termination
  • Knauf Insulation / Superglass proposed merger
  • P&O / Stena partial merger

European Court of Justice / European Commission

  • P&O European Ferries v European Commission: State aid
  • for FA Premier League in European Commission Article 81 EC investigation into sale of media rights for Premier League Football