Policy makers often rely on regulation and markets as essential tools in pursuing their objectives. Regulators frequently operate in areas, such as the economic, environmental or social spheres, where discretion needs to be exercised in the public interest, free from political interference. Reliance is often placed on consumer choice and market forces – the fundamental laws of supply and demand – to drive innovation, efficiency and economic welfare.

One of the greatest challenges in the development of public policy – and one of particular resonance in these times of economic turbulence – is how to strike an effective and sustainable balance between regulation and markets in particular sectors of the economy.

Our Regulation and Markets team has experience in providing expert legal advice to clients in a range of industries, across the public and private sectors, acting for regulators and for regulated entities. Key areas of expertise include:

• Competition law: merger control, market investigations, restrictive practices and abuse of dominance, state aid, and public procurement.
• Utilities regulation: economic and technical regulation of a variety of strategic industries including the gas, electricity, water and telecoms sector.
• Public and administrative law: the legal governance framework within which regulators operate, in particular EU, UK and Scottish constitutional law, human rights law and principles of judicial review.
• Professional regulation: regulation of professionals and professional firms in a number of sectors, including legal, accounting and actuarial services, and the imposition of disciplinary sanctions.
• Financial services regulation: conduct of business and prudential regulation and supervision of investment firms and approved persons; the market abuse regime.