Arthur Cox advises on a broad spectrum of competition law matters, including antitrust, merger control, compliance, and state aid issues. The team is jointly led by Richard Ryan, who handles competition litigation, compliance work, advisory matters, and state aid issues; and Patrick Horan, who covers the full scope of EU and Irish competition law, with particular focus on merger control work and regulatory investigations. Simon Breen is also a key member of the team, recognised for his work across Irish and EU competition law, including antitrust and enforcement actions.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction: Sector knowledge
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- ‘Excellent industry knowledge.’
- ‘Richard Ryan has been an exceptional partner for our competition law matters. He provides quick, simple and clear advice - exactly what you need in-house. A pleasure to work with.’
- ‘Richard Ryan is responsive & authoritative. Understated confidence & assurance.’
- ‘Leading edge knowledge, bright and insightful, practical and thorough.’
- ‘Top of their field, practical and assertive.’
- ‘The competition team at Arthur Cox have been involved in nearly all the significant cases over the past 20 years in Ireland. Deep experience of the competition authority and courts is valuable.’
Key clients
- Sector Alarm Group
- InfraVia Capital Partners
- CRH plc
- Irish Cement Limited
- Roadstone Limited
- Flutter Entertainment plc
- Kerry Group plc
- Ryanair
- Greencore Group plc
- Mediahuis N.V. and Mediahuis Ireland
- Applegreen
- Accenture
Work highlights
Advised PTI, a global wireless communications infrastructure provider and portfolio company of Blackstone Inc., on the acquisition of Cellnex Telecom’s towers business in Ireland for c.€971m.
Advised Ryanair on a High Court challenge of a dawn raid at Ryanair’s headquarters in Dublin by the CCPC on behalf of the Italian competition authority, and advising Ryanair on defending competition law counterclaims by Skyscanner, Vola.ro, Ypsilon.net, Flightbox, Booking.com and On the Beach in the context of High Court proceedings relating to alleged ‘screen scraping’ of Ryanair’s website and Ryanair products and services for sale other than via Ryanair’s website.
Advised Flutter Entertainment plc, on its acquisition of Snaitech for c.€2.3bn. The transaction was referred by the European Commission to the Italian competition authority, which approved the transaction unconditionally in phase 1.
Lawyers
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Practice head
Richard Ryan; Patrick Horan
Other key lawyers
Simon Breen