Stephen Critchley

Stephen Critchley is a partner in the firm’s Antitrust Litigation and Counselling Group.

He has over 20 years’ experience in the resolution of high value commercial disputes in court and arbitral proceedings. He has developed a focus on competition law – and particularly antitrust damages actions – since acting for the claimant in the landmark case of Crehan v Inntrepreneur Pub Company in 2003.

Stephen has higher rights of audience in the English courts, and is a fluent Spanish speaker.

Representative matters 

Competition Law                         

• Representing a group of companies in their claims against the truck manufacturers cartel.
• Representing Cable & Wireless; (1) as an Intervener before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) in Cityhook Limited’s appeal against a decision of the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) to close its investigation of an alleged anticompetitive agreement between telcos; (2) as an Interested Party in Cityhook’s judicial review of the OFT decision, after it lost its appeal to the CAT; and (3) as a defendant in a High Court damages action by Cityhook against 26 telcos.
• Representing T-Mobile in a claim by Software Cellular Network Limited (“SCN”) alleging abuse of dominance by T-Mobile in refusing to configure its switches to recognise SCN’s telephone numbers.
• Representing a household-name company in a leniency application to the UK Competition & Markets Authority (“CMA”).
• Advising a pharmaceuticals manufacturer under threat of CMA investigation for excessive pricing in the wake of the CMA’s Flynn/Pfizer decision.
• Advising well-known newsagents and duty fee retailers over the legality of WHSmiths’ exclusivity with Network Rail for news agencies at city terminuses and World Duty Free’s exclusivity with BAA at its airports.

Commercial Litigation:

• Representing a shareholder of Yukos Oil injuncted from seeing a valuation in the exercise of a call option on his shares lest he divulge the location of assets to the Russian government.
• Representing the UK government’s Commonwealth Development Corporation (“CDC”) in a dispute with a Spanish fishing company concerning the validity CDC’s put option to exit a Namibian joint venture between the parties.
• Representing Ardentia Limited in a software licence fee and exclusivity dispute with its head contractor, BT in development of the NHS national care records service (then the largest IT project in the world).
• Representing Virgin Media against a shipping line after its subsea cable was severed by an anchor in international waters.
• Representing the government of Trinidad & Tobago in a claim against a Spanish company for negligence in its reconstruction of Trinidad’s main highway.
• Representing NTL in its judicial review of an order permitting the police to intercept a customer’s emails using general Police and Criminal Evidence Act powers, rather than the specific interception powers of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act which required the Home Secretary’s approval.