Charlotte welcomes instructions across the range of Chambers’ competition work. She currently acts for The Consumers’ Association, commonly known as Which?, in opt-out collective proceedings against US-based wireless telecoms company Qualcomm Incorporated (led by Philip Moser KC, Rob Williams KC, Michael Armitage and Ciar McAndrew) (Case 1382/7/7/21 Consumers Association v Qualcomm).
During her 22 months at the CAT, Charlotte worked closely with CAT staff and panel members on cases at all stages, from initial filing through to judgment. She gained in-depth insight into the procedure of the Tribunal, and developed experience of the UK competition enforcement regime by working on a range of cases, including:
- Collective proceedings, both pre- and post-certification e.g. Case 1403/7/7/21 Kent v Apple and 1433/7/7/22 Gormsen v Meta Platforms.
- Complex, multi-party claims for damages e.g. the Second Wave Trucks proceedings.
- Merger reviews e.g. Case 1586/4/12/23 Dye & Durham v CMA.
- Subsidy control reviews e.g. Case 1577/12/13/23 The Durham Company v Durham County Council.
- Regulatory appeals e.g. Cases 1525 and 1524/1/12/22 Flynn Pharma v CMA.
During pupillage Charlotte assisted on a range of competition matters, including:
- Case 1381/7/7/21 Le Patourel v BT Group plc: standalone collective proceedings claim brought on behalf of consumers of residential landline services (for the defendant).
- Case 1644/7/7/24 Stephan v Amazon Inc. & Others: standalone collective proceedings claim brought on behalf of professional retailers (for the defendants).
- Cases 1581/5/7/23 and 1597/5/7/23: Utilita Energy Ltd & Ors v PayPoint plc & Ors: standalone claim alleging abuse of a dominant position in the energy sector (for the defendants).
- Cabo Concepts Ltd & Anor v MGA Entertainment Ltd & Anor: standalone claim in the High Court alleging abuse of dominance and unlawful agreements in the toy sector (for the claimants).
- 1697/5/7/24 Yew Freight Trading Limited v Puro Ventures Limited: standalone claim alleging unlawful agreements (for the claimant).
- In the matter of Thames Water Utilities Holdings Limited and in the matter of the Companies Act 2006: restructuring proceedings during which a competition law objection was raised to the proposed restructuring plan.
- Assisting with one of the first appeals against a Commission decision made under the Digital Markets Act.
- Advising on potential collective proceedings, including providing advice to funders.
- A sports-related competition dispute in the High Court.
- A merger review challenge in the CAT.
- Advising a regulator on a competition law issue.
She also gained experience of merger review filings (both under the Enterprise Act 2002 and the EUMR) and competition and consumer law investigations during her time at Slaughter and May. She completed .over a third of her training contract in the competition team, including a secondment to the Brussels office where her work focused on EU competition law matters.