"He is one of the most knowledgeable competition lawyers I have ever had the pleasure of working with"; “extraordinarily able”; "A strong and considered advocate who gains the trust of the judge."
David Scannell QC is a specialist in competition, regulatory, EU and commercial law.
Competition
David is recognised by the Legal 500, Chambers & Partners and Chambers Global as a Leading Barrister in competition law. He has extensive experience of all aspects of competition work, including cartels, regulatory investigations, stand-alone actions and follow-on damages claims, representing both claimants and defendants. He is currently instructed on the claimant side in follow-on damages claims arising from the CRT Cartel, the DRAMs Cartel, and the LCD Cartel. He acted for the defendants in Power Cables and Refrigeration Compressors (both in the English courts) and in Elevators & Escalators (in the European Courts). He currently acts for Orange in the Phones 4u litigation (Ch. Div.). He acted for GlaxoSmithKline in the ‘Pay-for-Delay’ litigation and for Sky in Pay TV. He is currently instructed in several matters involving CMA investigations (for private clients).
Regulatory and EU law
David has an extensive pharmaceuticals regulatory practice, and regularly acts in cases arising under the national and EU pharma regulatory codes. He has been recognised as an outstanding practitioner in EU law by the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners for some years. Apart from EU pharmaceutical law, he has extensive experience in constitutional matters, the REACH regulation, procurement, State aid, regulatory matters and mergers. Recent and pending cases of note include In re Easynet (Court of Appeal); AbbVie Inc and AbbVie Ltd v European Medicines Agency (EU pharmaceutical law) (General Court and Court of Justice), PTC v European Medicines Agency (EU pharmaceutical law) (General Court and Court of Justice), GE Healthcare v Commission (General Court), Aer Lingus v Commission (State aid)(General Court) and R(British American Tobacco) v S/S Health (Court of Justice). He is the first British barrister to have appeared before the Board of Appeal of the European Chemicals Agency (Grace v ECHA, 2017) and has since appeared before that Tribunal on multiple occasions. He has advised multiple governments and non-State entities on sanctions-related matters and on issues arising from Brexit. His Ph.D (Cantab) addressed the EU’s common foreign and security policy, including EU sanctions law. In 2018, David was elected by the Bars and Law Societies of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to be a UK Representative on the CCBE’s Standing Committee to the Court of Justice. He also sits on the Bar Council’s EU Law Committee.
Commercial
David has substantial experience of heavy commercial litigation, including international civil fraud, securities law, jurisdiction and IT disputes. He is currently instructed by Russia in ongoing proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights.
David is a member of the BVI Bar and has been called to the Irish Bar (2017). Before taking silk, David was a member of the Attorney General’s ‘A’ Panel of Counsel to the Crown.
Full lists of David’s notable cases appear below.
Recent and ongoing EU law cases include:
Other notable EU cases include:
In competition law, recent and ongoing cases include:
Other significant cases include:
Important cases
Important cases
LL.B (Hons) Law (First Class); LL.M (Cantab) (First Class with Distinction, 1st place); Ph.D (Cantab); Bar Vocational Course. Princess Royal Scholar, Inner Temple.
Other Bar memberships
Barrister-at-Law (Bar of Ireland)
British Virgin Islands
Appointments
Member of the Treasury ‘A’ Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown
Bar Council EU Law Committee
Bar European Group Committee
David Scannell is recognised in Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners in EU and competition law