David Blacktop

Practice Areas

Over the last 20 years David has worked on nearly all the major competition law cases and law reforms that have shaped New Zealand's competition law. David started his career at Bell Gully in 2002, before spending five years as Principal Counsel, Competition at the Commerce Commission between 2012 and 2017 where he was responsible for the advice provided to the Commission on competition law matters. In 2017, David established his own specialist competition law practice.

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While he was at the Commerce Commission, David played a leading role in drafting the 2013 updates of the Commerce Commission’s Mergers and Acquisitions Guidelines and Authorisation Guidelines, and the initial drafting of the Competitor Collaboration Guidelines, which explain the Commission’s approach to New Zealand’s new cartel laws.