Antitrust and Competition

Antitrust considerations are most frequently crucial and even critical in every significant transaction. Our experience, reputation and capabilities in the antitrust field already assisted many of our clients to consummate complicated transactions, to avoid heavy fines and most importantly to avoid criminal procedures and convictions as well as antitrust class actions.

We advise clients how to overcome problems and how to cleverly avoid them in all competition aspects:  civil, administrative (vis-à-vis the competition authority) and criminal. 

Pearl Cohen’s Antitrust and Competition group thrives under the leadership of Tzahi Yagur, who has nation-wide reputation in antitrust law and brings more than two decades’ and a half of experience in the field and whose authored book on “The Israeli Antitrust Laws” (last edition published in December 2018) is regularly quoted in numerous Supreme Court rulings and precedents. Tzahi is also a senior lecturer in “Israeli Antitrust Law” in several leading academic institutions and universities in Israel and a frequent well-known participant in various legal forums dealing with the cutting edge of Israeli Competition Law issues.

Qualified in many jurisdictions, our lawyers represent major clients in Israel and in the US on the commercial and enforcement aspects of antitrust law and economic regulation, appearing before courts and antitrust authorities around the world, wherever our clients are located.

Our expertise spans the entire gamut of competition law, providing commercial and practical solutions that withstand scrutiny in all antitrust and competition law jurisdictions. This includes antitrust litigation (civil, administrative and criminal as well antitrust class actions) for which we are best known. We also support clients in obtaining merger clearance from the relevant antitrust authorities, consulting on merger, licensing, IT, distribution and retail agreements, as well as patent disputes and litigation against government authorities and private parties. 

We also prepare and advise on antitrust compliance programs and other competition issues for clients, including in the food, pharmaceutical, insurance, banking, construction, fintech, transport, and other sectors. 

Our cradle-to-grave services include: 

• Antitrust Legal Opinions: Providing legal opinions and guidelines on antitrust complex issues;
• enforcement and litigation: representing clients in courts and tribunals in cases involving cartels, abuse of monopoly power, infringement of competition orders, civil/criminal/administrative proceedings, civil class actions and arbitration
• mergers/joint ventures: guiding clients through the US Hart-Scott-Rodino process and Israel pre-merger processes
• pharmaceutical and IP litigation: coordinating with our litigation groups to defend pharmaceutical firms and IP holders against antitrust-based challenges such as “reverse payment” claims, settlement agreements and other allegations of improper conduct to delay or inhibit competition
• Government investigations / cartels: representing complainants and defendants in complex antitrust investigations, including price-fixing investigations and parallel industry-wide class actions
• Monopolies:  Advising monopolies on a day-to-day practice on complex antitrust issues, in particular when facing abuse of monopoly power allegations.
• Trade Unions:  Representing various and large amount of trade unions in antitrust matters and consult them in antitrust matters on a day-to-day practice.
• Regulatory matters / business practice: offering extensive regulatory and practical business experience in the complex issues that corporations face in their vertical and horizontal relationships with suppliers, customers and competitors as to pricing issues, exclusive arrangements, licensing, joint ventures and territorial restrictions
• counselling and in-house compliance: advising clients on antitrust compliance on a day-to-day basis, tailoring compliance programs (both local and international programs), and hosting seminars and in-house training on how to minimize the risks of accusations of anti-competitive behavior.