Claire Simpson
Partner
d: +32 (0)2 790 48 50
m: +32 (0)473 13 00 91
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Areas of expertise
Industries
Languages
English
French
Dutch
Claire is a barrister with over 25 years of courtroom and advisory experience in EU/EEA competition, State aid and internal market law.

She brings clients a diverse perspective: she has worked in private practice (in barristers’ chambers in London), in-house (as Group Head of Competition Law at Euroclear) and most recently as EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) senior counsel, responsible for the pursuit and defence of competition and internal market cases before the EFTA Court and European Court of Justice (CJEU).

Claire’s advocacy work has covered complex competition cases and major cases on a wide range of substantive and procedural EU/EEA law issues. These include privacy and GDPR, free movement and consumer protection, tax law, financial services, fundamental rights, sport, State aid and principles of effectiveness and proportionality.

Among the landmark cases Claire has acted on are Google Shopping, Alphabet (Android Auto), Illumina/Grail, the Apple Ireland State aid tax case, Banco BPN and CK Telecoms. She has appeared regularly before the CJEU grand chamber.

In addition to her litigation expertise, Claire has an established track record of advising international business teams – whether on day-to-day pricing and product strategies or on novel cross-border projects involving multiple regulators and filings. Her time at Euroclear has given her a commercial understanding of the complexities of operating in a highly regulated sector.

Claire has an in-depth understanding of how the EU and EEA institutions work and reason. She worked particularly closely with the European Commission and national competition authorities during her time at ESA, where she advised its Competition and State Aid Directorate on procedural, jurisdictional and substantive issues relevant to complaints, investigations and dawn raids.

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Representative matters 

  1. C-258/23 – 260/23 Imagens Médicas Integradas: CJEU Grand Chamber hearing on whether data protection concerns/privacy rights (Article 8 Charter) mean prior authorisation is always needed for competition inspections (dawn raids).
  2. E-1/24 TC and E-7/24 AA: represented ESA in landmark EFTA Court case in field of anti-money laundering. Relying on fundamental rights, the court uses its interpretative powers to ensure there is no mismatch of the (in)validity of legal provisions in the EU and EEA legal orders.
  1. llumina/Grail: CJEU (Grand Chamber) and GCEU written and oral pleadings on behalf of an intervener in support of the European Commission. One of the most politicised and contentious merger cases of the decade.
  2. C-48/22 P Google Shopping: CJEU (Grand Chamber) written and oral pleadings on Article 102 TFEU dominance and self-preferencing.
  3. E-12/20 Telenor: successfully defending ESA’s decision to fine Telenor for abuse of dominance in a complex telecoms margin squeeze case.
  4. Successfully acting for Euroclear in relation to the (prohibited) Deutsche Börse/London Stock Exchange merger (M.7995).
  5. C-377/20 Servizio Elettrico Nazionale: submissions before the CJEU in leading case on proof of anti-competitive effects and concept of competition on the merits.
  6. C-228/18 Budapest Bank: CJEU written and oral pleadings in key ruling on restrictions of competition by object.
  7. E-31/24 Toska v ESA and E-32/24 Skel v ESA: acted for ESA in challenge to lawfulness of decisions authorising unannounced inspections (dawn raids).
  8. Amicus curiae submissions before the Norwegian and Icelandic Supreme Courts in relation (respectively) to confidentiality of leniency information (follow-on damages, Trucks cartel), and to fines and anti-competitive effects on trade.

Pro bono

  1. Advising through Advocate, the pro bono charity of the Bar of England and Wales, including in relation to the EU free movement rights of a medical practitioner, pre- and post-Brexit.
  2. Ongoing work with the University of Edinburgh Insights Programme and the Inner Temple Bar Scholarships Committee and outreach programme on diversity and inclusion issues.
  3. Mentoring through the W@Competition and College of Europe mentoring programmes.

Professional

  1. Admitted as barrister, England and Wales, 1999
  2. Admitted as barrister, Ireland, 2018
  3. Admitted to Brussels Bar (Dutch-speaking section, EU-list), 2025

Academic

  1. LL.B. (Hons), University of Edinburgh, 1996
  2. LL.M. European Law, College of Europe, 1997
  3. LL.M. Competition Law and Economics, Brussels School of Competition, 2014, summa cum laude
  1. European Circuit
  2. Honourable Society of Inner Temple

Publications

  1. CJEU Revisits its Case-Law to Find Damages Can Be Claimed Before National Courts for Air Freight Cartel, Also During the Transitional Period: Case C-819/19 Stichting Cartel Compensation, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, Volume 14, Issue 1, January 2023, 28-30
  2. Judgment in C-617/17 PZU Zycie: ne bis in idem – First Steps towards a Twofold Test for idem?  Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, Volume 10, Issue 6, June 2019, 367-369
  3. Dominant firms and selective discounting in the EU: When is “meeting competition” a defence? European Competition Journal, 2016, Volume 12, Issue 1, 1-27

 

Speaking engagements 

  1. Information Exchange after Price Hunters and C-298/22 Banco BPN, CompLaw Nordic, Informa Connect, Stockholm, 25 March 2025 (panellist)
  2. Limits of Merger Control for the Quest of Contemporary Political Discourse, Merger Control for Competitive Europe, GCLC and W@Competition, Brussels, 16 January 2025 (panellist)
  3. Digital Markets Act: Practitioner Perspectives, Competition Law in the Digital Economy, CompLaw Advanced EU, Informa Connect, Brussels, 25 November 2024 (panellist)
  4. Judicial Review in EU Competition Law, Evidence, Proof and Judicial Review in EU Competition Law (2nd ed. book launch), EU Law Live and Elgar Publishing, Brussels, 29 May 2024 (panellist)
  5. Merger Control, Practical Perspectives: Article 22 EUMR, Illumina/Grail, CK Telecoms, CompLaw Nordic, Informa Connect, Stockholm, 14 March 2024 (panellist)
  6. Dominance and (Ab)use – Latest from the EU Courtroom, W@Competition Masterclass “Exercising Power”, Brussels, 30 November 2023 (speaker)
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Claire has acted in landmark cases, with broad and deep experience of representing private and public actors, commercial and non-commercial bodies before the EU courts across the spectrum of EU/EEA law.