Profile: David Aitman

Competition

Biography: Competition

David Aitman is co-head of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's global antitrust, competition and trade (ACT) practice group. A UK solicitor, he has practised in Brussels and London since 1980.

David has advised in all areas of competition law, specialising in advice to the media sector and regulated industries. Recent experience includes joint venture cases in the media sector (obtaining an exemption for the UIP joint venture before the Commission and clearance for a series of joint ventures establishing new pay television platforms and channels); a series of merger clearances in the electricity sector (including the acquisition by Electricité de France of London Electricity); successfully defending Sainsbury's, one of the largest UK supermarkets, in an industry investigation by the UK's Competition Commission; acting on several price-control cases involving regulated utilities (including advising the regulator on electricity pricing in Northern Ireland, and acting for three of the major UK water companies, Northumbrian Water, Welsh Water and Anglian Water on pricing issues); and advising on major cartel cases (including acting for Sumitomo Metal Industries in the seamless tubes and in the welded tubes cases, and acting for a group of directors in the ready-mix cases).

David has published and lectured frequently on European competition law. He is the author of the chapter in Butterworth's Encyclopaedia of Competition Law on licensing and intellectual property; of the chapter in Bellamy & Child on telecommunications; of the chapter in Practical Intellectual Competition Law on competition law; and of the annual reports on competition law in the media sector in the Yearbook of Media Law (1995 to 2001).

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is a leading international law firm with a network of 26 offices across Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East providing a full range of legal services worldwide. Members of the firm's 250-strong ACT group are based in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Bratislava, Brussels, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Tokyo, Vienna and Washington, DC.