McGuireWoods London partner Matthew Hall was quoted in a March 26, 2020 Compliance Week article on antitrust/competition law compliance challenges European companies face during the COVID-19 crisis.
Hall discussed the potential for competition law violations during the crisis, particularly in the areas of abuse of dominant position, such as through price-gouging, and collaborating too closely with competitors – even under the temporarily relaxed rules.
“Companies still need to be aware that even if EU governments do want to relax the rules to enable closer coordination between competitors, it does not mean that competition law ceases to apply to the arrangements they put in place,” said Hall, a member of the firm’s COVID-19 Response Team. “Companies can still be found to have breached competition law, even if the government has seemingly sanctioned them by allowing closer cooperation.”