Services & Practices > Regulation and Disputes
We have assisted both regulators and private clients with a wide range of TMT and digital policy and regulatory issues as well as litigation, taxation and antitrust disputes. We have also assessed regulatory frameworks and individual regulators' processes and outputs, including management advising and training of regulators.
Our regulatory cases have involved more than 60 countries, along with the EU’s Competition Commissioner, the Justice Departments of Canada and the United States, the Supreme Court of Ireland, and the U.S. Department of Defense. The regulatory expertise we offer includes the former heads of regulatory commissions in several countries.
In terms of regulatory disputes, consultations and other proceedings, we have served as industry experts on cases in Brazil, Canada, Georgia, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Timor-Leste and United States, including in a Supreme Court level case. We have also advised several operators on spectrum auctions, including training of their bidding teams.
Some case summaries follow.
EU Competition Authority Approvals
We provided a hedge fund with assessments of two proposed mobile mergers (Germany and Ireland)—specifically, whether approval by the EU Competition Authority could be expected and the conditions that were likely to be imposed. Our basis included the Authority’s track record as well as changing policies and political perspectives regarding industry structure and investment.
Sharing of Broadband Infrastructure
For several clients we have examined the impact of shared broadband infrastructure (including active facilities) policies after these were introduced by regulation. In the cases we examined (Brazil, India, Kenya, Mexico, Rwanda, Singapore, South Africa, etc.), the results have not been positive unless involving very substantial government subsidies. The we examined included operator willingness to engage in or use shared facilities, the associated subscriber coverage and growth, and the resulting retail service prices.
We have also advised clients in the United States and Japan on “open access” models for mobile broadband and cable TV networks.
Expert Witness and Industry Analysis
On a longstanding court case on whether the mobile licenses issued by the government should be sustained or additional licenses should have been issued, we assessed the impact across OECD of the number of licenses issued on market growth as well as the readiness of the claimant’s technology for national deployment at the time of the original licensing. The case was settled a week prior to the scheduled testimony of our expert witness.
Expert Witness in Mobile Operator License Case
In Ireland we provided an expert witness during a Supreme Court review of an appeals court decision that upheld a challenge of how the government issued the third mobile operator license. The review resulted in the Supreme Court reversal of the lower court decision and citation of the supporting role of the expert witness.