The most experienced team in Denmark

We are a team of highly specialised partners, lawyers and economists with experience from previous employment with the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority, the Danish Public Prosecutor's Department, Danish and European Courts, the Ministry of Justice, the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement, the University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Business School and the corporate sector, including companies such as Ørsted and Carlsberg.

Strong economic expertise is a fundamental part of the team's success

Today, economics is a fully integrated and fundamental part of competition law, and economic theory and analysis constitute an important part of daily work in this area. Consequently, Plesner's competition law team includes a number of economists with the highly specialised and solid skills required to handle the complex economic approach of competition law practice. Experience has shown that the close interaction between the team's economists and lawyers creates outstanding value for the clients including the comprehensive strategic considerations surrounding, for instance, complex cartel cases and damages cases.  

The team is a market leader, especially in relation to the most complex cases

Plesner has been involved in most of the important cartel cases investigated by the Danish competition authorities and the majority of EU cartel cases involving Danish companies. Plesner is the only Danish law firm which has participated in both the European Commission's leniency and cartel settlement procedures. 

We have experience from a significant number of the most important cases concerning abuse of a dominant position, including the largest ever abuse case in Denmark. The team has worked on a number of significant competition law-related damages actions, including the largest ever cartel-related damages action in Denmark and the largest ever damages action in Denmark relating to abuse of a dominant position. The team has also been involved in a number of cartel related damages actions abroad, including in the US, Canada, the UK and Germany.

The team has worked on some of the most complicated merger control cases, including cases involving remedies in the form of divestitures, and have vast knowledge of all aspects of both Danish and EU merger control. The team was involved in one of the largest ever private placements in Europe. 

The team's experience from the Danish courts and from the Danish Public Prosecutor is important in criminal cases. Plesner has successfully defended clients in court against criminal charges.

Other areas of team experience include all types of agreements, state aid and compliance as important parts of the work.

Highlights

Cartels

• Criminal law - ensured the acquittal before a Danish city court of a Danish wholesaler accused by the Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime of cartel activities (demand for fines as well as prison sentencing)  
• Danfoss - defended Danfoss in the Refrigeration Compressors case. It was the first cartel case with joint dawn raids by EU, US and Brazilian authorities and one of the first cartel cases to be settled under the European Commission's new settlement procedure. Coordinated the criminal/administrative investigations in multiple foreign jurisdictions. Represented Danfoss in the largest ever cartel related damages case complex in Denmark and coordinated the defense in follow-on damages actions in multiple jurisdictionCRT cartel - represented an international home electronics manufacturer in a damages action related to the CRT cartel
• DSV A/S - Air Cargo and freight forwarding cartel cases
• KODA - representing the Danish collecting society KODA in the appeal of the European Commission's decision on alleged restrictive practises among the collecting societies before the General Court of the European Union (The CISAC case)
• The local banks case - defended seven Danish banks in the Local Banks case. All serious allegations by the Danish Competition Authority and the Danish Competition Council against the seven banks as to cartel activities, agreements on market partitioning and price coordination were dismissed by the Danish Competition Appeals Tribunal
• Dansk Rørindustri - represented Dansk Rørindustri in the Pre-insulated Pipes case, one of the first EU cartel cases involving a Danish company. The case established a number of important principles of EU competition law

Abuse

• Ørsted - defended successfully Ørsted and Elsam in a number of complex court cases against the Danish competition authorities concerning the alleged excessive pricing on the electricity spot market in Denmark and in relation to the follow-on damages claims from more than 1.100 companies The case complex is the largest ever in Denmark
• The Association of Danish Law Firms - advising the Association of Danish Law Firms in relation to complaint about Karnov for abuse of dominance through, inter alia, excessive pricing
  
• Energy E2 - advised Energy E2 in relation to the Danish Competition Authority's investigation of Energy E2's pricing behavior. Energy E2 was acquitted of all allegations, and the General Director of the agency stated that it had been "one of the most extensive investigations we have had in modern time"
• Predatory pricing - representation of a company in the financial sector in relation to a stand-alone damages action regarding alleged predatory pricing
• Victor Hasselblad - defended the Swedish camera producer Victor Hasselblad in a European Commission investigation regarding Hasselblad's alleged refusals to license essential IP rights and bundling of products – similar to the Microsoft case. After several years of investigation, the complaints were rejected by the European Commission
• Skandinavisk Motor Co (Semler) - representation in relation to a follow-on damages action relating to abuse of dominance on the spare parts market

Vertical agreements

• Nissan Nordic Europe - representation in relation to complaint to the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority and stand-alone damages action regarding refusal of access to qualitative selective distribution system for after sale services
• Diesel Motor Nordic - represents the company at the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court regarding an alleged prevention of parallel import. The Danish Competition Authority, Dutch and Swedish competition authorities conducted coordinated dawn raids, and the Danish agency has described the case as "one of the longest-running investigations"
• Levi's - successfully defended Levi's in court against criminal charges by the Danish Public Prosecutor. Levi's was charged with illegal resale price maintenance, but Levi's was correctly acquitted
• Weber-Stephen Nordic- successfully defended Weber-Stephen Nordic in a case where the Danish Public Prosecutor investigated allegations from the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority that Weber-Stephen Nordic illegally tried to influence retailer's resale price
• Weber-Stephen Nordic - competition law advice regarding implementation of a qualitative selective distribution system in the Nordic Region
• Semler - represented successfully the importer of Audi in the European Court of Justice's Case C-125/05 Vulcan Silkeborg regarding the interpretation of the motor vehicle block exemption regulation
  

Mergers

• EY International - assisting EY before the national court and the European Court of Justice in relation to the groundbreaking "gun-jumping-case" following  EY's acquisition of KPMG's Danish activities
• The Danish Ministry of Finance and Ørsted - the Danish State’s sale of shares in DONG Energy (Ørsted) to Goldman Sachs, ATP and PFA, and the subsequent IPO, including state aid issues and the merger notification of both transactions to the EU Commission
• Equinor Refining Norway (owned by the Norwegian state) - the acquisition of Danske Commodities notified to and cleared by the EU Commission
  
• EY - assisted in the acquisition of KPMG Denmark. The merger was approved in phase II by the Danish Competition Council subject to commitments
• Circle K (Statoil Fuel & Retail) - the acquisition of Dansk Shell, notified to and cleared in a phase II by the EU Commission and in the subsequent divestment sale of certain assets to DCC also cleared by the EU Commission
• Telenor - the contemplated merger with Telia in Denmark notified to the EU Commission 
• The Danish Ministry of Finance and Danish Ministry of Culture – the contemplated (partly) privatisation of TV2
• Bonnier - assisting in the sale of 49.9 % of the shares in the media company Dagbladet Børsen to the media company JP/Politikens Hus
• Nordic Capital - the sale of Unifeeder A/S to DP World notified to and cleared by the EU Commission
• Ratos/Arcus - acquisition of Pernod Ricard Danmark A/S. The first decision by the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority cleared with commitments in phase I
• A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S - assisted in connection with the sale to DFDS of Norfolk Holdings, and A.P. Møller - Mærsk's acquisition of a minority shareholding in DFDS
• Telenor - assisted in combining with Telia - the parties' radio access network to build the joint network involving the 2G, 3G and 4G (LTE) networks
• Nordic Capital - assisted in the acquisition of the retail chain Sportmaster, the largest Danish retail chain in sports articles involving more than 40 formerly separate undertakings
• Post Danmark A/S - assisted the national Danish postal operator with the EU merger notification of its merger with its Swedish counterpart, which included advice on commitments and trustee appointment
  

State aid

• Ørsted - assisted the state-owned company with state aid advise in relation to the contribution by, inter alia, Goldman Sachs of capital in the company. The contribution was one of the largest ever in Europe
• Sund & Bælt Holding - the construction of the Femern Belt Fixed Link
• FIH Erhvervsbank A/S - assisted in relation to the agreement with Finansiel Stabilitet (the Danish State) relating to bank rescue scheme number 5 and the subsequent notification of this aid with the European Commission
• Innovation Fund Denmark - assisted the largest state-owned foundation in Denmark, Innovation Fund Denmark, in creating a pragmatic and state aid compliant IPR frame-work for the foundation's funds to private companies and universities for the development of new and important technologies