"one of the Bar’s foremost names in competition practice, with peers describing him as ‘a very experienced and reliable silk who is active in many of the biggest cases’”
Robert O'Donoghue QC has extensive experience of competition law, EU law, utility regulation, and related aspects of commercial and public law. He has appeared in major cases in the High Court, Competition Appeal Tribunal, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, EU Courts, Irish courts, international arbitral bodies, and in oral hearings before competition authorities and sectoral regulators in these matters. He also frequently gives expert evidence on his areas of expertise in foreign courts and arbitral bodies, including in class actions in Canada and Israel, as well as litigation in Sweden. Whilst his practice focuses mainly on private clients, Robert also frequently acts for and advises public authorities within and outside the EU, including in Hong Kong, Australia, and Ireland. Robert is also a full member of the Brussels Bar, and so retains full rights of audience in the EU Courts and the courts of the EU Member States.
Robert O'Donoghue QC has extensive experience of competition law, EU law, utility regulation, and related aspects of commercial and public law. He has appeared in major cases in the High Court, Competition Appeal Tribunal, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, EU Courts, Irish courts, international arbitral bodies, and in oral hearings before competition authorities and sectoral regulators in these matters. He also frequently gives expert evidence on his areas of expertise in foreign courts and arbitral bodies, including in class actions in Canada and Israel, as well as litigation in Sweden. Whilst his practice focuses mainly on private clients, Robert also frequently acts for and advises public authorities within and outside the EU, including in Hong Kong, Australia, and Ireland. Robert is also a full member of the Brussels Bar, and so retains full rights of audience in the EU Courts and the courts of the EU Member States.
Robert has consistently appeared as a leading barrister in legal directories such as Chambers and Partners and Legal 500. Further awards and accolades include:
Robert acts across the full spectrum of competition law matters, including appeals against decisions of competition authorities, business-to-business private actions, follow-on damages actions, and claims for interim injunctions. His practice comprises domestic cases, cases before the EU Commission and EU Courts, and proceedings before competition authorities at a national level both within and outside the EU. He has acted in a several of the leading competition law cases in the UK and elsewhere, including:
Competition law – follow-on damages
Robert has acted in dozens of follow-on damages actions, for both claimants and defendants, including:
Mergers
Robert has substantial merger control experience at the UK and EU levels, since, prior to his return to the Bar, he worked in a major US firm in Brussels, focusing to a significant extent on merger control matters, including Phase 2 mergers before the EU Commisison and OFT/CMA. Representative matters include:
Pharmaceuticals
Robert has worked for over two decades on the application of competition law to pharmaceutical markets. He has acted in several of the leading cases in this area:
Robert has acted in a number of leading EU law cases before both the EU and English courts. Cases include, in addition to those listed under other headings:
Robert has had a long-standing interest in utility regulation, particularly in energy and telecommunications law. In the energy sphere, he has acted for leading producers, pipleline operators, and downstream operators in the Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe in confidential arbitral and litigation matters, as well as complaints to competition authorities and regulators.
His interest in telecoms stems from his secondment to DG Competition’s Telecommunications Unit in 1998. Since then he has acted for both private undertakings and sectoral regulators in telecommunications matters. He is standing counsel to the Commission for Communications Regulation on telecommunications matters. He has an extensive advisory practice on all aspects of telecoms regulation, including spectrum auctions, price control measures, access issues, local loop unbundling, national broadband plans, State aid, public procurement, and net neutrality.
Leading Court-related matters he has been involved in include:
Robert advises extensively on State aid matters across a range of public and private clients and industries. He has also acted for governmental and other public and private bodies in repsect of State aid notifcations to the EU Commission. He has also been involved in major State aid cases litigated at the appellate level in the United Kingdom including:
Legal career
Scholarships
Books
The Law and Economics of Article 102 TFEU, Hart Publishing (2020) (Third Edition) (co-authored book with Jorge Padilla). This work has been cited with approval before the High Court, Irish Supreme Court, Court of Justice of the European Union, and in submissions to the US Supreme Court. It was also selected as runner-up for the Inner Temple Book Prize in 2008, out of a total of 79 entrants. Extracts from reviews include:
Competition Litigation: UK Practice and Procedure, N Green and M Brealey eds, OUP, Second Edition 2020 (co-authored the chapter on Jurisdiction)
"Verbalising A Test For Exclusionary Conduct" Chapter in CD Ehlermann & M. Marquis eds, "A Reformed Approach To Article 82 EC," Hart Publishing (2008)
"Dealing With Viking & Laval: From Theory To Practice," Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies (2008-2009), Vol 11
"Over-Regulating Lower Prices: Time For a Rethink on Pricing Abuses Under Article 82 EC" Chapter in CD Ehlermann & I. Atanasiu eds, "What is an abuse of a dominant position?," Hart Publishing (2006)
"The Treatment of Loyalty and Target Rebate Practices Under Article 82 EC," Chapter in the Finnish Yearbook of EU law (2004)
Articles
Net Neutrality in the EU: Unresolved Issues Under the New Regulation (co-authored with Tom Pascoe), available at ssrn.com (2016)
Notes From a Small Island: Natural Justice and the Institutional Design and Practice of Competition Authorities and Appellate Courts, Competition Policy International Journal (September 2014) (co-authored with Tim Johnston)
Injunctions And Standard Essential Patents (SEPs): The Problems Of Arguing From The Particular To The General, Competition Policy International, May 2013
Europe’s Long March Towards Antitrust Damages Actions, Competition Policy International, April 2011
Recent Developments In Antitrust Class Actions in The United Kingdom, Competition Policy International, August 2010
Casenote on GlaxoSmithKline, Competition Policy International, April 2009
Regulating the Regulated: Deutsche Telekom v. European Commission, Competition Policy International, May 2008
Microsoft v. European Commission: Sounds Good In Theory But . . ., Competition Policy International, September 2007
Are Article 82 EC and Intellectual Property Interoperable? The State of the Law Pending the Judgment in Microsoft v. Commission, Competition Policy International, April 2007 (with Maurits Dolmans and Paul-John Loewenthal)
The Final Piece In The Jigsaw: An Analysis Of The Draft European Commission Guidelines On Non-Horizontal Mergers, Competition Policy International, March 2007 (with David Parker)
Memorandum by John Temple Lang and Robert O’Donoghue, published in “An EU Competition Court – Report with Evidence (published in the Written Evidence of the 15th Report of Session 2006-07 by the European Union Committee of the House of Lords, ISBN 978 0 10 401052 5).
The EU Leniency Programme Comes of Age, (2004) 27 World Competition, Issue 1, pp. 75–99 (with Nicholas Levy)
Casenote on Airtours, Common Market Law Review 2003 p.1171-1185 (with Christoph Feddersen)
Defining Legitimate Competition: How to Clarify Pricing Abuses Under Article 82 EC, Fordham International Law Journal, Volume 26, Issue 1 2002 Article 5 (with John Temple Lang)
Teaching
