Sam Szlezinger

UK Merger Control

• Total/Rontec – obtaining clearance for Total for its disposal of its entire downstream activities in the UK. The transaction was cleared subject to undertakings to dispose of a single petrol station
• Ambassador Theatre Group/Live Nation -  advised ATG on clearance at first phase of a highly controversial (and contested) merger

EU Merger Regulation

• Flextronics/Alcatel Lucent – obtaining clearance for Flextronics on its acquisition of certain manufacturing activities of Alcatel Lucent
• World Fuel Services – advising WFS in obtaining clearances for its acquisitions of Watson Petroleum Limited and BP’s aviation fuel supply operations at various Scandinavian airports

Cartels - EU proceedings

• Sumitomo Metals - acting for SMI in cartel proceedings before the European Commission and European courts in respect of a worldwide cartel for the supply of steel tubes for the oil industry
• IBP Limited  - advising the administrators in EU cartel proceedings concerning the supply of plumbing fittings

Cartels - UK proceedings

• Hasbro - advising and representing Hasbro in relation to investigations into alleged price-fixing at the retail level by Argos and Littlewoods in respect of certain toys manufactured by Hasbro, including obtaining full leniency from UK competition fines for Hasbro
• Coverite Limited - advising Coverite in respect of the OFT's proceedings in respect of the company’s participation in price fixing arrangements with roofing contractors concerning local authority contracts
• RegulatoryAer Lingus - advising on its challenge to landing charges at Heathrow Airport under in the Airports Act 1986.  The CAA agreed that the charges were excessive but declined to change them

Behavioural

• ATOC - Advising on the inquiry by the Competition Commission into ROSCOs
• Maxthon - advising an independent browser on the European Commission's Microsoft remedies

Litigation

• Racecourse Association – advising the RCA on its successful appeal in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, overturning the OFT's decision in the Attheraces case which concerned the collective sale of interactive media rights by 49 courses. This was the first successful appeal from an infringement decision by the OFT
• British Horseracing Authority – representing the BHA in its successful appeal from a High Court judgment which found that the BHA had abused its dominant position in the terms it applied for the sale of its data (finding that the BHA had charged excessive prices, refused to supply and applied discriminatory prices). This was the first case on Article 102 to be considered by the Court of Appeal

State Aid

• DECC  - advising on the state aid aspects of its flagship Green Deal project
• Greek government - advising on restructuring of PPP agreements, necessitated by the financial crisis, with motorway concessionaires to ensure compliance with state aid rules and obtaining clearance from the European Commission

Sam has spoken at a number of conferences on competition law, including on compliance, the Competition Act 1998, the Enterprise Act 2002 and EU merger control in the media sector.

Sam is co-author of the chapter on the application of EU and UK Competition Law to the gas sections in Butterworths Competition Law. He is also is a contributor to the Yearbook of Media Law (OUP) and has written chapters on competition law for Digital Media (by Williams, Higham and Calow) which was published by Sweet & Maxwell and for A User's Guide to Copyright (by Flint, Fitzpatrick and Thorne).