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Transport

Aer Lingus’ Nine-Year Legal Battle with Ryanair & its Merger with IAG

Posted by on 02 October 2015
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Alec Burnside of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, counsel to Aer Lingus, explains how in an astonishing 29-hour period no fewer than six decisions and judgments paved the way for the sale of Ryanair’s minority shareholding in Aer Lingus, to which Ryanair had clung since 2006. That sale cleared the way for the merger of Aer Lingus with International Airlines Group (IAG), owner of British Airways and Iberia.

The nine year legal battle repeatedly stretched the boundaries of EU and national merger control law, Ryanair’s determination to stay on the Aer Lingus share register throwing up a series of untested issues. Ten different courts and competition agencies were involved, yielding as many as thirty decisions, judgments and orders. Alec Burnside will give a retrospective at IBC’s Competition Law in the Transport Sector conference in London on 27 January 2016*.

*This is a two day conference taking place on the 27th and 28th of January 2016 in London. Day one has an aviation focus and day two has a shipping focus.

Alec Burnside
Alec Burnside, Managing Partner Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, concentrates on EU competition law and over the past three decades has practiced across the full range of competition law disciplines, regularly working on high-profile cases with implications for global industries, governments and leading corporations. Given his experience, he has become a widely-recognised and highly sought-after adviser in matters involving merger clearances, cartel defence, state aid, and abuse of dominance. His wide-ranging sector expertise spans consumer products, energy, financial services, IT, natural resources, manufacturing, military, pharmaceuticals, transport and logistics, and telecoms. +32 (0)2 891 81 81 alec.burnside@cwt.com
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