In this global antitrust and competition review for 2016, we shine a spotlight on three areas of concern to businesses operating around the globe as they review their risk profile: new approaches to cartel enforcement and investigations; the globalisation of antitrust private litigation; and the need for reform of the merger control process.

Cartels and investigations

Our review starts with a look at cartel enforcement and investigations, still the number one priority for antitrust agencies worldwide. We expect to see more use of intelligence gathering by agencies as a means of discovering unlawful activity and a greater use of digital forensic techniques by the authorities to gather evidence in unannounced inspections ('dawn raids'). Increased cooperation and information sharing among the world's regulators will expose businesses to greater risks of rapid contagion across jurisdictions. We share some practical guidance on what businesses need to do to update their dawn raid policies in 2016.

Litigation

We then look at the growing trend of global antitrust litigation from a well-established base in North America. Over the last decade, we have witnessed an increase in antitrust litigation in Europe and an emergence in Asia, Australia and South Africa. We provide insights into three key drivers for this growth in 2016 and compare and contrast the approach to antitrust class actions in the United States and Canada with the new class actions framework in the UK and explore what this might mean for this emerging regime.

Mergers

Turning to merger control, we consider the increasingly complex array of global merger control regimes, and ask whether there is hope for global convergence in 2016, or whether the focus for authorities remains firmly on improving processes at the microlevel within individual jurisdictions or regions. We summarise the challenges for businesses, highlight how merger control rules can actually prevent economically desirable mergers, and we offer some suggested improvements for antitrust authorities to focus on over the coming year.

Norton Rose Fulbright's antitrust and competition practice has had a busy year supporting and partnering with our clients across these areas. We advised on three alleged global cartels and investigations, along with several more at a national level; we represented clients in five dawn raids; we advised clients in 15 high profile abuse of dominance investigations; we worked with clients on 17 major litigation cases, including seven follow-on damages claims; and we helped to secure clearance for 25 M&A deals as standalone antitrust counsel (where the firm was not corporate counsel). We are ranked in Global Competition Review's Global Elite for 2016 at number eight in the world.

We expect 2016 to be another testing year for the global antitrust and competition community and we look forward to working with you as you navigate this increasingly complex landscape. If you would like to know more about any of these trends and their implications for your business, we would be happy to discuss this with you and your colleagues. Our contact details are given at the back of this review.

"Being the best firm in an individual jurisdiction does not necessarily reflect how one performs on a global stage. For that, we turn to the Global Elite, our assessment of the top 25 competition practices in the world. For the second year, we asked firms to supply us with detailed information about the work they have done over the past year, as well as quantitative information about the size of their practice group, the jurisdictions they appear in and so on.

"Top 10 competition practices of the Global Elite"

Global Competition Review

This year, we refined our questions to focus on only the most difficult, contentious antitrust work that we believe best captures the quality of a competition practice. We have used this information to update and revise the Global Elite, along with our three rankings specific to the kinds of work antitrust practices focus on – mergers, cartels and, for the first time, antitrust litigation.

We believe our research results in the definitive list of the world's best antitrust practices, based on their ability and real-time performance."