Biography • Competition

Alex Potter is a partner in Freshfields' London antitrust, competition and trade practice group. He is a specialist in EU and UK competition law, and in coordinating the review of international cases. Alex's practice includes merger control, state aid law and competition enforcement actions brought by agencies. He has experience across a wide range of industries, including in the consumer goods, chemicals, health care, pharmaceutical, infrastructure, regulated utilities and defence sectors.

Alex has handled numerous matters before the European Commission and UK national authorities, such as: advising Sara Lee on the disposal of its Household & Body Care division, including the €1.2 billion sale of its global body care and European detergents business to Unilever, cleared subject to conditions after a Phase II review by the European Commission, and the €320 million sale of its air care business to Procter & Gamble, cleared unconditionally by the European Commission; advising Northern Rock on the successful application for state aid clearance for the restructuring aid granted to Northern Rock by the UK government; obtaining EU merger clearance for BAE Systems on its joint venture with VT Group to consolidate the UK naval shipyards; and advising Walkers Snacks, a division of PepsiCo, on the UK Office of Fair Trading's abuse of dominance enquiry into Walkers' rebate schemes and other trading terms.

In 2008-2009, Alex spent 18 months in our Beijing office as co-head of our China ACT group, leading the firm's response to the introduction of the Anti-Monopoly Law in China.

Freshfields' antitrust competition and trade practice comprises more than 50 partners and 260 specialists based in Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK and the US. Our coverage of Asia, Europe and the US enables us to advise our clients in competition cases involving many jurisdictions around the world.