Simon is the leader of our Competition & Regulation team. Simon is known for his strategic approach to competition and access issues and his application of industrial organisation economics to legal issues.

Simon advises clients on all types of competition law, access and economic regulatory issues. Simon advises clients on all provisions of Part IV of the (former) Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (Trade Practices Act) including misuse of market power allegations. Simon has also advised clients on authorisation applications across a broad range of industries.

He has extensive M&A experience in Australia and the United States, and he has extensive experience in advising merger parties and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on merger clearance issues. He is an external legal adviser to the ACCC's Mergers Branch.

For the past six years, Simon has been listed as one of Australia's 'leading individuals' in the area of competition law by Asia Pacific Legal 500.

In 2009, 2010 and 2011 he was recognised by Chambers Global as one of Australia's leading competition/antitrust lawyers and one of Australia's leading energy and natural resources lawyers.

Simon was named as leading competition lawyer in the 2010 PLC Competition Handbook. Simon has been recognised as a leading competition and communications lawyer in Australia in Best Lawyers 2011, 2010, 2009 report published by the Australian Financial Review.

Clients

• ACCC Communications Branch
• ACCC Mergers Branch
• ACCC Transport Branch
• ACCC Water Branch
• Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), formerly VENCorp and NEMMCO
• Australian Energy Regulator (AER)
• Australian Health Service Alliance Limited 
• Cathay Pacific Airways Limited
• Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries
• Fortescue Metals Group Limited
• Grid Australia
• National Competition Council (NCC)
• Electricity Authority New Zealand

Key experience

• Advising Cathay Pacific on an alleged global price fixing cartel in the international airfreight market. The ACCC and New Zealand Commerce Commission have issued proceedings against Cathay. Cathay is also one of seven defendants to a class action currently before the Federal Court in relation to the same alleged cartel.
• Advising clients on structuring supply and joint venture arrangements for compliance with Part IV of the (former) Trade Practices Act, including notifications and authorisations applications.
• Providing compliance strategy advice for Ridley Corporation, Rheem, Cathay Pacific and Australian Health Services Alliance.
• Advising on an alleged global price fixing cartel in the paper manufacturing industry.
• Advising Healthscope on allegations of misuse of market power by health insurers.
• Advising New Zealand Telecom on allegations of misuse of market power made by the New Zealand Commerce Commission.
• Preparing an application for authorization of potential price fixing conduct on behalf of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) for the collective negotiation of area hire chargers at all Australian ports.
• Preparing of an application for authorisation on behalf of Health Purchasing Victoria and Melbourne Metropolitan Hospitals in relation to an exclusive tender for nurse agency services.
• Preparing of 32 application for authorisation of amendments to the National Electricity Code.
• Advising the AER on an enforcement matter under the National Electricity Rules.
• Advising the AEMO (formerly VENCorp) on a range of matters including the high voltage connection issue in relation to the Victorian Desalination Plant, connection issues in relation to the Macarthur River Wind Farm, the Shaw River Gas Plant and the Mortlake Gas Plant.
• Advising VENCorp (now the Australian Energy Market Operator) on access law issues arising from the Victorian Gas Market System Operation Rules.
• Advising the NCC in relation to Goldfield Gas Transmission Pty Ltd’s application for revocation of coverage of the Goldfields Gas Pipeline under the National Third Party Access Code for Natural Gas Pipeline.
• Advising the ACCC Water Branch on issues under the new Water Market Rules.
• Advising the ACCC Transport Branch with respect to the Branch's consideration of undertakings under Part IIIA of the (former) Trade Practices Act offered by GrainCorp, Co-operative Bulk Handling Limited and ABB Limited in respect of access to services provided by grain export port terminals owned by each such party. 
• Advising FCAI in relation to its application for declaration of the Fisherman Island vehicle facility at the Port of Brisbane under the Queensland Competition Authority Act 1997 (Qld).
• Advising the Oakajee Port & Rail consortium on the development of an access regime for a new iron ore export port and terminal and railway line in the mid-west of Western Australia including the ring-fencing and operational separation arrangements to comply with the Competition Principles Agreement. 
• Advising a party on access and economic regulatory issues arising from the Maritime Services (Access) Act 2000 (SA) (Maritime Services (Access) Act). The Maritime Services Access Act regulates access to port terminals and associated infrastructure in South Australia. 
• Advising a party on the recovery of cost categories under the Rail (Access) Code 2000 (WA).
• Advising Fortescue Metals Group in its application for declaration of the services provided by the Pilbara railway lines of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
• Advising Fortescue Metals Group on its strategy for access to BHP Billiton's Pilbara Rail System before the Australian Competition Tribunal, the Federal Court of Australia (2006), the Full Federal Court (April 2007) and the High Court of Australia (2008). 
• Advising a number of parties on issues arising under ARTC's Access Undertaking provided to the ACCC under Part IIIA of the (former) Trade Practices Act. 
• Advising a number of parties in relation to the regulation of access to Victoria's intra-state rail network, both under Part IIIA of the (former) Trade Practices Act and the then Rail Corporations Act 1996 (Vic).
• Advising the ACCC on its then forthcoming decision on Foxtel's proposed Digital Set Top Unit Service special access undertaking (DSTUS SAU). Foxtel withdrew the DSTUS SAU after the ACCC published its draft decision to reject Foxtel's DSTUS SAU in late 2006. Simon then represented the ACCC in the judicial review application of the ACCC's final decision accept the revised DSTUS in the Federal Court.
• Advising the ACCC on its decision to reject the ULLS monthly charge undertaking proposed by Telstra in December 2005. The terms of access to the ULLS were one of the most significant issues in Telco regulation in Australia at that time because of the implications for Telstra's then plans to invest in FTTN and the policy debate between Government, Telstra and the ACCC regarding the future of access regulation for the ULLS and any future FTTN network. The Tribunal decision was a comprehensive success for the ACCC.
• Acting for the ACCC in proceedings before the Australian Competition Tribunal for review of the ACCC's decision to reject Telstra's undertaking for the LSS (the high frequency spectrum on Telstra's copper wire network used to provide non-voice services, eg DSL). The Tribunal decision of June 2006 was a comprehensive success for the ACCC.
• Advising the ACCC on its decision of December 2005 to reject Optus' Digital GSM Terminating Access Service ordinary access undertaking.
• Advising the NCC in the Australian Competition Tribunal (2004), Full Federal Court (2006) and High Court of Australia (2007) with respect to Virgin Blue's application for declaration of airside services at Sydney Airport.
• Advising the NCC with respect to its recommendation that the 1,300KM Goldfields Gas Transmission Pipeline should remain a regulated pipeline for the purposes of the National Gas Code.
• Advising and drafting work in relation to the National Electricity Market Access Code on behalf of the National Electricity Code Administrator.
• Advising on rail access issues for Freight Australia.
• Assisting the ACCC with advice on the Westpac / St. George merger.
• Assisting the ACCC with advice on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia / Bank West merger.
• Assisting the ACCC with advice on the Vodafone / Huchinson merger.
• Assisting the ACCC with advice on the GUD acquisition of Breville.
• Assisting the ACCC with advice on Thomson Reuter's acquisition of E&Y tax accounting software business.
• Advising the ACCC on its merger assessment of the recent acquisition of Patrick Corporation's Australian logistics business by Toll Holdings.
• Advising the ACCC in the ACCC v AGL case and advising merger parties in developing strategies to obtain informal merger clearance from the ACCC.
• Advising QR National on rail access issues under the Queensland rail access regimes.
• Advising Austrans Pty Ltd in its competition cross claim against Pacific National alleging anticompetitive conduct in the intermodal rail line haul markets.
• Acting for AWB in relation to proceedings brought by Freight Australia before the Australian Competition Tribunal.