Richard Ryan

Richard is Head of the Competition and Regulated Markets Group. He is admitted to practice in Ireland and New York.

He advises on all aspects of EU and Irish competition / antitrust law including: investigations and dawn raids by the European Commission and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission of Ireland (CCPC), competition litigation, merger control, competition aspects of commercial agreements and behaviour, EU State aid law, competition compliance programmes, leniency applications, complaints and sectoral studies by regulators. He has been involved in a large proportion of the leading antitrust, merger control and State aid cases in Ireland over many years.

Relevant Experience

• Advising CRH plc on a CCPC investigation into bagged cement and on a successful challenge before the High Court and the Supreme Court to the scope of documents seized by the CCPC during a dawn raid, which resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision on the scope of dawn raid powers
• Advising Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks on defending follow-on actions for damages in Ireland arising from the European Commission’ s decision to fine truck manufacturers €2.93 billion for participating in a cartel
• Advising a client on European Commission and CCPC investigations into motor insurance in Ireland.
• Advising Flutter Entertainment plc on Irish merger control aspects of its €12 billion merger with The Stars Group, Inc
• Advising LN-Gaiety Holdings (a JV between Live Nation and Gaiety Investments) on Irish merger control aspects of its acquisition of MCD Productions
• Advising Green REIT on Irish merger control aspects of its €1.3 billion acquisition by Henderson Park
• Advising Covivio S.A. on EU merger control aspects of its acquisition of the Hilton Kilmainham Hotel
• Advising Sports Direct on Irish merger control aspects of its acquisition of House of Fraser
• Advising the Department of Finance on the establishment and operation of Home Building Finance Ireland, one of the key initiatives in response to the housing shortage
• Advising the Department of Finance and the National Treasury Management Agency on the bank support measures taken by Ireland in response to the financial crisis, including the bank guarantee schemes, the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank, bank recapitalisations, bank mergers, the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the reorganisation of the Irish banking sector and the restructuring of the banks