Competition/Antitrust - Australia
What the Team is Known For
Johnson Winter Slattery maintains a compact, specialist practice, noted for providing a particularly high level of hands-on partner engagement and in-depth cartel expertise that extends to advising on international and criminal cartel investigations initiated by the ACCC. The firm is also prominent representing clients from the aviation, consumer goods, energy and resources, financial services and healthcare sectors, and advises extensively on consumer law investigations and prosecutions. The practice regularly offers guidance on merger clearance issues for multinationals headquartered overseas and is frequently sought out specifically for competition-related advice by companies that use other firms for broader corporate work.
Strengths
"JWS has been very attentive and very commercial."
"They provide excellent analysis, succinct advice, timely responses and a reasonable price point."
Work Highlights
Johnson Winter Slattery acted for the ACCC in its Federal Court proceeding against Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc) for its alleged role in "Celeb-bait" scam advertisements published on Facebook in contravention of the Australian Consumer Law.
Notable Practitioners
Aldo Nicotra is based in Sydney and is active in all areas of competition work, enjoying a particularly high reputation for his handling of contentious mandates, including cartel cases. "For Aldo, the biggest positive is the technical knowledge and that he finds a practical way forward." "Incredibly commercial, obviously excellent on the law and able to think strategically, Aldo is arguably the pre-eminent competition expert in the country."
Sar Katdare maintains a diverse and busy practice from the Sydney office, covering such issues as merger authorisation and ACCC investigations and prosecutions. "Sar is excellent to deal with, very across the relevant issue and also responds to the issues in a timely way, Sar provides useful insight on related matters." "Sar is good at cutting through complexity and getting to the heart of the issues and guiding a business in a way they can engage with."
