James Webber is a partner in the Antitrust practice in Brussels and London.

He focuses on EU and UK merger control, antitrust, State aid and subsidy control law.

James’s competition practice is focused on merger control, joint ventures, cooperative agreements and antitrust litigation. He also has a significant practice in subsidy control / State aid and is consistently rated as one of Europe’s leading lawyers in this field.

James has been recognised as:

• Ranked in Band 5 for Chambers UK 2024
• One of The Lawyer’s “Hot 100” 2022, the top 100 lawyers in any field selected for excellence within and relevance to the legal profession in the UK

• Paramount Global in respect of its SkyShowtime OTT streaming joint venture with Comcast. This matter won ‘Competition & Regulatory Team of the Year’ at The Lawyer Awards 2022
• Celanese Corp in respect of global merger clearance for Nutrinova, a food ingredients joint venture with Mitsui
• Agratas Limited (a subsidiary of Tata Sons) on their plans to establish a global battery cell gigafactory in the UK with a capacity to produce 40 GW of cells annually
• British Gas in respect of judicial review against the UK Government’s subsidies to Bulb
• Paramount Global in respect of CMA clearance for its sale of Simon & Schuster to KKR
• ExxonMobil, in respect of conditional phase II clearance from the Italian Competition Authority for the disposal of Exxon’s Italian downstream fuels business to Italiana Petroli (API)
• Simon & Schuster in respect of CMA and ACCC clearances for its merger with Penguin Random House
• Citrix in respect of global merger clearance for its acquisition of Wrike
• Chipita on phase 1 clearance for sale of its business to Mondelēz International
• Albemarle on its acquisition of Guangxi Tianyuan New Energy Materials Co., Ltd. FDI and antitrust approvals for the expansion of Albemarle’s lithium refining business in China
• Celanese on the sale of its 45% stake in a joint venture, Polyplastics Company, to its joint venture partner and Daicel Corporation
• Macquarie in respect of the antitrust and regulatory aspects of its divestment of Società Gasdotti Italia
• Discovery Inc in respect of the proposed joint venture with Polsat for creation of a OTT streaming service in Poland
• Viacom in respect of merger clearances for merger with CBS
• Albemarle Corporation in respect of merger clearance for its MARBL Lithium joint venture in Western Australia
• Viacom in respect of merger clearance for its investment and joint control over Miramax
• ArcelorMittal in respect of merger clearance for its acquisition with Nippon Steel of Essar Steel of India
• Jaguar Land Rover in respect of European Commission approval for €129m regional aid in favour of JLR’s new production facility in Slovakia
• Albemarle in respect of US FTC, Bundeskartellamt and Korean approval for the sale of its polyolefin catalyst business to W R Grace & Co
• LyondellBasell in respect of the global and EUMR clearances for its €2.5bn acquisition of A.Schulman Inc.
• Albemarle Corporation in respect of global and EUMR phase 1 clearance for $3.6bn sale of Chemetall to BASF SE; in respect of global and EUMR Phase I approval for its acquisition of Rockwood
• Cyprus Cooperative Bank in respect of liquidation aid approval from the European Commission and merger control aspects of sale of certain assets to Hellenic Bank
• Shell, OMV, Wintershall, Uniper and Engie on the antitrust aspects of the Nord Stream 2 gas transmission pipeline
• Subordinated creditors of Banco Espirito Santo in the leading case against the European Commission’s State aid clearance of a bank resolution
• Senior creditors of National Bank of Greece in respect of the State aid aspects of the restructuring of the bank
• A financial institution in respect of FX cartel litigation in the English High Court
• Viacom in respect of EUMR phase I clearance for its acquisition of Channel 5
• BMI Healthcare with respect to the UK CMA Private Healthcare Market Investigation resulting in the first ever blocking minority in a CMA market investigation and thereby reducing proposed divestments against BMI from 11 at provisional findings to zero; representing BMI Healthcare in its case against the CMA, the first successful judicial review quashing the CMA’s procedural approach during a live inquiry; on CMA clearance for acquisition of Nuffield Hospitals, including novel CMA “fix it first” remedy; in respect of the CMA market study and Competition Commission market investigation into private healthcare; BMI Healthcare in respect of the CMA market study and Competition Commission market investigation into private healthcare
• Singapore Airlines with respect to the sale of its stake in Virgin Atlantic to Delta Airlines
• Paramount Pictures in respect of its EU distribution arrangements for cross border Pay TV and DVD sales; relating to Ofcom UK Competition Commission investigation into movies on pay TV
• Syniverse in respect of global and EUMR phase II approval of its acquisition of MACH. This was a conditional clearance with an upfront buyer requirement
• Dassault Systèmes on EUMR phase I clearance for its acquisition of IBM DS Software
• Aditya Birla in respect of EUMR phase I clearance following Art 22 referral for its acquisition of Columbian Chemical Corp
• Lecta Group in respect of EUMR phase I clearance for its acquisition of Italian paper merchant Polyedra
• Government of Croatia on State aid and public procurement compliance associated with privatization of Croatian motorway network
• UK Government in connection with State aid schemes notified or negotiated with the Commission in risk capital, real estate and transport
• Numerous investment banks, hedge funds and distressed debt investors in connection with State aid approvals for Eurozone bank restructuring
• Major infrastructure investor with respect to the State aid and procurement aspects of privatization of High Speed 1 by the UK Government
• Lucasfilm Ltd with respect to UK Government support for production of Star Wars

Accolades

• Ranked in Band 5 for Chambers UK 2024. Clients note that “He is extremely knowledgeable and very responsive, which is important in these situations with tight deadlines”, “He is a great guy who is easy to work with.” and “He is generally very thorough in his analysis but also a very practical lawyer.”
• The Lawyer “Hot 100” – James was listed as one of the top 100 lawyers in any field selected for excellence within and relevance to the legal profession in the UK.
• Listed in Who’s Who Legal a “Global Thought Leader” – one of only three lawyers in the UK to be so ranked.
• Listed in Who’s Who Legal “Global Leader” in competition law
• Selected by Global Competition Review as one of the “40 under 40” brightest antitrust lawyers in the world