Rikki has extensive experience advising businesses across the full range of competition law matters involving UK and EU regulators and courts, including merger control and foreign investment reviews, antitrust investigations, market inquiries and digital regulation. He helps clients take a holistic approach to navigate the growing interplay between antitrust, data privacy, consumer protection and IP laws.
As a member of the firm's global tech practice and having spent time working in Silicon Valley, Rikki advises a broad range of tech and digital platform businesses on strategic issues with significant implications for their commercial objectives. He also has strong sector expertise in telecoms, financial services, retail and consumer products.
Rikki regularly advises on high-profile and cross-border M&A, managing the process of securing merger control and foreign investment clearances around the world. He is also able to help clients navigate complex regulatory environments, including behavioural investigations, digital regulation (such as the EU Digital Markets Act and the UK digital markets competition regime) and emerging technologies (such as artificial intelligence).
Rikki has extensive experience before the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and European Commission, including through his time on secondment to the UK CMA’s mergers unit. This enables him to formulate arguments that play well with decision makers and to approach difficult cases with innovative ideas and a calm demeanour.
Rikki's experience includes advising:
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise on the global merger control and foreign investment aspects of its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.
- Adobe on the merger control aspects of its attempted $20 billion acquisition of Figma, including the in-depth Phase 2 reviews by the UK CMA and European Commission.
- MásMóvil on obtaining a Phase 2 approval from the European Commission for its €18.6bn joint venture with Orange to combine their operations in Spain, a landmark case in the telecommunications sector.
- Electricity North West on its acquisition by Iberdrola for a deal value of £5 billion. This was the first significant transaction cleared under the UK CMA’s special regime for energy network mergers.
- Bakkavor on its proposed acquisition by Greencore for a deal value of £1.2 billion.
- Meta on the successful closure of the UK CMA’s abuse of dominance investigation into Facebook Marketplace with novel data use commitments.
- Meta on its defence against the European Commission's abuse of dominance investigation into Facebook Marketplace.
- Meta on on its ongoing appeal before the European Court of Justice, and previously the European General Court, against the European Commission's failure to include safeguards to protect the production of sensitive and irrelevant personal documents. Meta has been awarded interim relief from the President of the European General Court.
- Meta on its response to the UK CMA’s market study into online platforms and digital advertising.
- BT Group/Openreach on its rollout of full fibre broadband in the UK, and the UK National Security and Investment Act reviews related to the share acquisitions by Altice and Bharti Televentures.
- Tesco on the proposed sale of its banking operations and a long-term strategic partnership with Barclays.
- Tesco on obtaining an unconditional Phase 2 approval from the CMA in relation to its acquisition of Booker.
- Houseful/Zoopla and RVU on their growth strategy and various acquisitions in relation to their property and digital comparison businesses, including Confused.com and Tempcover.
- Strava on its acquisition of Runna, a leading UK-headquartered tech company.
- Patient Square Capital and M&G on their investment in AIM-listed 4basebio.
- Verizon on the global antitrust and foreign investment aspects of the $5bn sale of Verizon Media to funds managed by Apollo Global Management, Inc.
- HSBC on various market studies and investigations, including the UK CMA’s Phase 2 market investigation into retail banking.
- Cazoo on a string of commercial projects and M&A deals around Europe.
- CVC on the merger control and competition aspects of its strategic investments in the Premiership Rugby and PRO14 rugby competitions.
- Hellman & Friedman Advisors LLC on the European Commission's approval of its $6bn acquisition of payments platform Concardis.
- Boparan Private Office on obtaining an unconditional Phase 1 approval from the CMA in relation to its acquisition of Bernard Matthews.
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