Nick Cotter represents clients in high-value antitrust and regulatory litigation, including acting for Mastercard in its defense of numerous multimillion pound claims by European retailers, such as Sainsbury's, Arcadia Group, and Deutsche Bahn, alleging that its interchange fees and certain network rules are anticompetitive. He has obtained groundbreaking judgments in the competition sphere in the English High Court and Court of Appeal in this regard, including the first judgment in the United Kingdom dealing with passing on of loss in July 2016 and defeating the £437m claim of a number of large UK retailers led by Asda Stores Limited against Mastercard in January 2017.
Nick also has acted for telecom companies such as Digicel and Lycamobile in proceedings in the English courts, from the High Court up to the Privy Council, and in various Caribbean courts dealing with interconnection fees, market access, and anticompetitive practices.
In addition, Nick regularly acts for clients in general commercial disputes in litigation and arbitration, covering warranty claims (including for Schneider Electric in claims arising from its acquisition of an automation business in the Middle East), fraud (successfully taking claims to judgment for Parker Hannifin and NTR Metals), and dealing with other contract issues (such as Digicel's high-profile arbitration dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board with respect to the Stanford $20m T20 cricket match).
Experience
- The College of Law, London (Legal Practice Course 1995); University of Brussels (ULB) (Licence Speciale in European Law with distinction 1993); University of Oxford (B.A., Upper Second Class Division One with honours 1992)
- Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales
- French