With the globalization of commerce, antitrust practice involves competition issues in numerous jurisdictions across the globe.  Both in the area of international cartels and multi-national mergers, antitrust has transcended the boundaries of a domestically focused practice.

International business is one of the most dynamic and active fields of federal and private antitrust enforcement. Of late, the U.S. government has been working hard to enhance its ability to pursue anticompetitive international conduct by, among other means, developing closer and more effective cooperative relationships with law enforcement agencies abroad and aggressively prosecuting international cartels.  The Department of Justice has seen the number of criminal investigations and prosecutions related to international cartels grow dramatically in connection with the Antitrust Division's Corporate Leniency Policy.

Gibson Dunn's Antitrust Practice Group has had broad experience in representing leading North American, European, and Asian companies with regard to international antitrust issues. Our antitrust experience encompasses litigation, government criminal and civil investigations, mergers, joint ventures, intellectual property issues, import-export matters, general antitrust counseling, and antitrust compliance activities. Our clients have convenient access to this experience via our global network of domestic and foreign offices (including London, Paris, Brussels, Munich, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley), which facilitates the effective and efficient provision of legal services throughout the world.

We are accustomed to coordinating U.S. antitrust work with litigation strategies and plans formulated under the competition laws of the European Union and its member states, as well as under the growing number of competition laws in other countries around the globe. Thus, for example, our Antitrust Group represented a major international corporation opposing a worldwide joint venture in the polyolefins industry in proceedings before both the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission's Merger Task Force. We have also represented Intel in a European Commission investigation, represented clients in connection with proceedings before the European Commission under Articles 81 and 82, and have assisted clients in analyzing and addressing cartel matters implicating simultaneously the laws and competition agencies in a wide variety of countries.

Our antitrust partners in Brussels, London, Munich, Paris, and the U.S. work closely together on pan-European antitrust matters (e.g., significant mergers, cartel investigations, Europe-wide antitrust compliance programs) as well as domestic antitrust matters in the U.K., France, Germany and other national EU jurisdictions. 

We also pride ourselves on our effective working relationships with leading competition counsel throughout Europe and Asia.  In addition, we have a long history of providing antitrust counsel and representation to leading firms in Japan, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Australia, and the Middle East.

Finally, in international matters the services of Gibson Dunn's Antitrust Practice Group are complemented by the resources of the Firm's International Trade Practice Group, which offers a complete array of legal services in the international context. This Group includes our Customs and Trade Law Practice, centered in our Washington, D.C. office, which addresses such import-export matters as antidumping proceedings, countervailing duties, Section 301, export and customs regulations, import relief, encryption software and export controls, and NAFTA and WTO matters.