Harman Singh Sandhu

Competition Law

Mr. Harman Singh Sandhu is a Partner in the Firm's Competition Law Practice, involved with competition law since its inception in India. Harman has considerable experience in advising Indian and foreign companies in relation to a whole range of competition issues (both on the advisory side and in proceedings before the Competition Commission of India (CCI)), the National Law Appellate Tribunal, the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India). His experience spans a variety of sectors including telecoms, railways, steel, aviation, banking, natural resources (oil, coal, iron ore, etc.), petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, paper, construction, cement, tyres, mineral processing equipment and fibres.

 His prominent clients include Ballarpur Industries, Trident Industries, ACC Limited, Ambuja Cements, Nutrien Inc, Linde AG., DuPont, Coal India Limited, Bayer/Monsanto, Baring Private Equity Asia, Alstom and Oravel Stays (OYO).

Harman has been involved in defending large multinational companies in high profile cartel enforcement cases including leniency matters in India, in the cement and tyre industries amongst various others. Harman advised on the seminal CCI v. SAIL case, the first case under the Competition Act to be decided by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. He has successfully defended Apollo Tyres in the tyre cartelisation case, Tata Chemicals in the soda ash cartelization matter, Visaka Industries in relation to alleged cartelization in the asbestos sheets sector. He has acted for ACC (now a LafargeHolcim group company) in the cement cartel case, and for ACC and Ambuja Cement in relation to alleged bid rigging conduct.

Harman has been acknowledged as a leading lawyer in Global Competition Review's Who's Who Legal of Competition Lawyers since 2011. Harman was described as “fabulous, highly intelligent and someone who provides great inputs on all his matters – I have great respect for him” by Chambers Global Guide 2013. Chambers and Partners 2016 stated, “Harman Sandhu is a rising star in the competition practice, who is widely recognized by peers. One interviewee characterizes him as "a great guy - very intelligent and very hard-working." In 2018, Chambers and Partners recognized Harman as a notable practitioner, noted that he has a solid reputation and experience in cartelisation and abuse of dominance matters. Interviewees state that he "stands out as one of the most dynamic lawyers," who is "pragmatic, very effective" and "solution-oriented." For 2019, Chambers and Partners noted that market sources are “very impressed with his capabilities” and he “comes up with the best advice” for industry-specific and multi-jurisdictional issues, and “stands out for his assured handling of the competition aspects of large, cross-border transactions.” In 2021, Chambers and Partners recognized Harman as "an exceptionally smart lawyer and great strategist" and he has been ranked as a ‘Global Leader’ and ‘Global Elite Thought Leader’ in the Who’s Who Legal Rankings for Competition Law in 2021.  

Before joining the firm, Harman worked with the Office of Communications (UK) and the Directorate General of Competition in the European Commission - Cartels Division (Belgium), focusing on competition law issues.

English, Hindi

Harman holds an LL.B. from M. D. University and completed his LL.M. in Competition Law from King's College London under the supervision of Professor Richard Whish, a world renowned competition law expert.