David Holmes

Special Counsel
Sydney

Biography

David is a special counsel in our Competition, Consumer and Market Regulation group.

He advises clients on ACCC merger clearances and competition and consumer law compliance, investigations and litigation.

David has considerable contentious competition and consumer law investigation, enforcement and litigation experience. This includes acting in several high profile ACCC investigations and Federal Court liability and civil penalty proceedings.

He advises clients on issues relating to cartel conduct, misuse of market power, anti-competitive conduct, misleading or deceptive conduct, false or misleading representations, unconscionable conduct, unfair contract terms and consumer guarantees. David also provides strategic merger clearance, compliance and industry-specific regulatory advice.

David advises clients in all sectors including leading retail, ecommerce, financial services (including payments), infrastructure, pharmaceutical and healthcare.

Experience

David’s experience includes advising:

  • A major supermarket on mergers, competition and complex regulatory advice and regulator engagement.
  • Cuscal Limited on the successful ACCC merger clearance of its acquisition of Indue Limited.
  • Australian Payments Plus (AP+) with respect to ConnectID, pricing governance, operational restructuring, and various competition law matters including its operating companies eftpos, BPAY and New Payments Platform (NPP).
  • AP+ and AusPayNet in relation to the ACCC authorisation concerning the future of Australia’s account-to-account (A2A) payments infrastructure, including the potential decommissioning of Bulk Electronic Clearance System (BECS) and potential move the to the New Payments Platform (NPP).
  • eftpos Payments Australia in relation to the ACCC v Mastercard misuse of market power proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.
  • Various global private equity funds and corporates on multijurisdictional mergers across various industries.
  • Grays eCommerce on a large-scale Australian Consumer Law investigation and Federal Court of Australia litigation.
  • A multinational pharmaceutical company in the successful defence of a two-and-a-half-year cartel investigation by the ACCC.
  • A global cartel investigation, acting for an immunity applicant.
  • Wesfarmers on the successful merger clearances of its acquisition of Silk Laser Australia Limited and on its sale of Coregas.
  • Various ecommerce platforms, major retailers and large entertainment, travel and media clients, on competition and consumer law compliance and advisory matters.

Awards and Recognition

  • The Best Lawyers in Australia 2027

    Recognised in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Competition Law

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