Alex Hannington

Alex is a Managing Associate in the Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations team in London. A specialist in commercial and regulatory disputes, Alex has a strong track record of delivering results for clients navigating complex, high stakes cases.

In the antitrust and data protection space, Alex has acted on some of the highest profile actions to come before the English courts in recent years, including several for well-known multinationals and consumer brands. Many of these actions are regarded to have set precedents in their respective areas, including with respect to the conduct of group and funded litigation, the jurisdiction of the English courts to hear claims related to overseas activities, and the interpretation of key legislation.

In the regulatory appeals space, Alex has advised some of the UK’s largest utilities and infrastructure businesses on price control, licence modification and associated mandates, helping them to navigate challenging processes, present technical evidence in a clear and compelling manner, and protect the interests of the consumers and other stakeholders that they serve.

Alex is also actively involved in a number of pro bono projects.

Work highlights

Alex’s recent matters include:

• Advising a global technology company on its defence of a class action alleging abuse of dominance in the videogame industry.
• Advising a global payments company on its defence of proceedings alleging that its rules relating to ATM transactions breach various European and domestic competition laws.
• Advising on the defence of claims in England brought by a large number of orange producers concerning alleged collusion in Brazil, including a high-profile jurisdiction challenge and subsequent challenges to the propriety of the claims
• Advising one of the UK’s three major CRAs on its appeal of an ICO enforcement notice and the defence of associated litigation brought on behalf of 46 million UK adults.
• Acting for a major airline in defence of high-profile follow-on competition damages actions brought by c.65,000 claimants, which concluded with a successful settlement following more than a decade of litigation.
• Advising a UK gas distribution network and a major UK water company in connection with Ofgem’s RIIO-2 and Ofwat’s PR19 and PR24 price controls respectively, including the former’s successful appeal to the CMA.
• Advising a major UK mobile network on a dispute with a rival MNO arising out of the latter’s failure to implement historical remedies ordered in connection with the T-Mobile / Orange merger.

 

• Volunteer, APPEAL
• Volunteer, Citizen’s Advice

Alex studied law at Jesus College, University of Oxford.

Alex is one of the co-authors of The Legal 500’s Comparative Guide on Competition Litigation and has written various articles on developments in the UK competition litigation and collective redress spaces.