European Law
London (Bar)
13 years ranked
Provided by Brick Court Chambers
David is a leading silk in competition law, life sciences (pharma, food and chemicals regulation in the UK and EU) and EU law. He was nominated as Competition Silk of the Year in 2023 and as Barrister of the Year 2025 at the Lawyer Awards.
David’s recent competition cases include Stellantis v Autoliv ([2025] CAT 9) for the successful defendant, Autoliv; Phones 4U v EE, DT, Orange and Others ([2025] EWCA Civ 869 and [2023] EWHC 2826 (Ch)), for the successful defendant, Orange; and Prochlorperazine (2024 CAT 36), for the successful appellant, CinVen. He acts for SalMar in the Salmon Cartel cases, for the Road Haulage Association Used Trucks in the Trucks collective proceedings, for Sun/Ranbaxy in the Lundbeck/Citalopram follow-on and for Epic Games in Epic Games v Google.
David’s recent life-sciences cases include R(Guilin) v Food Standards Agency [2024] EWHC 614 (Admin), a successful judicial review resulting in the reclassification of monk fruit across the UK and the EU; ABOCA (T-302/21, EU:T:2024:808), successfully quashing a Commission Regulation banning hydroxyanthracine derivatives in the EU; Orion Corp v S/S Health ([2019] EWHC 689 (Admin)); and Easynet ([2018] EWCA Civ 10); Symrise v European Chemicals Agency (General Court); AbbVie v European Medicines Agency (General Court and Court of Justice); PTC v European Medicines Agency (General Court and Court of Justice); GE Healthcare v Commission (General Court); Aer Lingus v Commission (General Court); and R(British American Tobacco) v S/S Health (Admin. Court, Court of Justice and Court of Appeal).
Provided by Chambers
David Scannell KC is a highly esteemed regulatory barrister with a practice taking in licensing disputes in the pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries. He has strong experience of EU cases but also those concerning the UK's developing regulatory framework. He has been involved in challenging decisions of the Food Standards Agency on 'novel food' statuses.
David Scannell KC is particularly active in EU pharmaceutical and chemical industry matters, often appearing for companies seeking to challenge regulatory decisions before the CJEU. He also regularly takes on EU competition law mandates.
David Scannell KC has a strong profile in competition work arising in the pharmaceutical industry, often with an overlap to intellectual property law. He is instructed to act on both regulatory appeals and follow-on claims, including the 'pay for delay' cases.
Provided by Chambers
David is so meticulous and details-focused.
David is very cerebral; he clearly has a deep understanding of anything he presents and his arguments are weighty.
David is amazing. His knowledge is encyclopedic; he is incredibly quick to see how regimes fit together.
He's a proper EU specialist, he is a real regulatory and constitutional scholar.
David is intellectually extremely strong. You can see this in how he presents the case: he threads the needle extremely effectively. He's an extremely persuasive, eloquent and effective advocate.
The speed with which he grasps the complex facts is impressive, his drafting is crisp and powerful, and his advice on strategy is succinct and commercial.
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