Natalie Yeung

Practice Areas

Competition and Competition Litigation

Work Highlights

Natalie is Head of our Competition practice in Asia. She is one of the industry’s leading competition and regulatory lawyers and has worked on a wide range of antitrust, merger control and regulatory matters involving Hong Kong, EU and UK competition law. She regularly represents clients on cross-border M&A (with a particular focus on Chinese merger filings) and the new Hong Kong competition legislation and advises on the coordination of Chinese and Asian merger notifications, foreign direct investment and other regulatory matters, in the context of global transactions, working alongside our London/Brussels office.

In Hong Kong, Natalie has advised extensively on the Competition Ordinance and has worked on a number of ‘firsts’, including the first block exemption application, the first case involving the use of formal commitments, one of the first cases involving cooperation with the Competition Commission and the first case before the Competition Tribunal that was fully resolved under the Commission’s Cooperation and Settlement Policy.

Natalie is referred as “one of the standout lawyers in Hong Kong” and “one of the world’s foremost experts on Hong Kong’s competition legislation.” She is repeatedly recognised as Band 1 lawyer by Chambers Greater China in 2023 for Competition / Antitrust (International Firms), China and is ranked as a Highly Regarded Lawyer by the IFLR1000 Asia-Pacific 2023 for Competition in Hong Kong. She is also named Leading Lawyer in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2023 for Antitrust and Competition and is listed as a Thought Leader in the Who's Who Legal Thought Leaders - Competition 2023 and National Leaders for Mainland China & Hong Kong Competition 2022 and as a recommended Global Leader in Competition 2022.

Her recent advice on cross-border transactions in China and across Asia includes advising:

Merger Control Cases

• INEOS on its US$5 billion acquisition of BP’s global acetyls and aromatics business

• S.F. Holding on its US$2.3 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in Kerry Logistics

• Elanco on its acquisition of Bayer’s Animal Health Business

• JCDecaux Group on their participation in a c. HK$3.9 billion consortium offer to acquire all the shares in Clear Media Limited

• Google on its US$1.1 billion acquisition of certain HTC assets related to the design, engineering, certification and testing of smartphones

• Shell on its £47 billion acquisition of BG Group

• a Hong Kong listed operator of the largest standalone messaging app on its US$8.6 billion acquisition of a majority stake in Supercell Oy

• Swire Beverages on the expansion of its Coca-Cola bottling franchise territories in Mainland China

• Shangtex (a Shanghai state-owned enterprise) on its HK$1.5 billion takeover of Luen Thai Holdings Limited

• Thermo Fisher Scientific on its US$13 billion proposed takeover of Life Technologies Corporation and its US$4.2 billion takeover of FEI Company

• Starwood on its US$13 billion acquisition by Marriott

• Rolls Royce on its acquisition of 50% stake in Rolls-Royce Power Systems joint venture

• Bertelsmann on its combination with Pearson of their respective trade-book publishing businesses

• INEOS on its PVC joint venture with Solvay, styrenics joint venture with BASF and oil refining joint venture with PetroChina

Hong Kong Antitrust Investigations and HKCC Decisional Matters

• Booking.com in the Online Travel Agents investigation on the use of parity clauses in its contracts with Hong Kong accommodation providers, cumulating in the first commitments accepted by the HKCC under section 60 of the Competition Ordinance, which was awarded the GCR Behavioural Matter of the Year for the APAC region in May 2021

• Harilela Hotels Ltd in the Tourist Attraction Tickets investigation by the HKCC, which is the first case in Hong Kong concerning the liability of a facilitator of a cartel and the second commitments accepted by the HKCC under section 67 of the Competition Ordinance

• A company on an investigation by the Hong Kong Competition Commission into its alleged price fixing, market sharing and bid rigging. This is the first case to be fully resolved under the HKCC’s Cooperation and Settlement Policy prior to Tribunal proceedings

• the Hong Kong Association of Banks in relation to the application to the HKCC for a decision confirming that the Competition Ordinance does not apply to the giving effect of the Code of Banking Practice by banks and deposit taking companies. This is the first application for a decision in Hong Kong

• Hong Kong Liner Shipping Association in successfully obtaining a block exemption order from the Hong Kong Competition Commission for the liner shipping industry in Hong Kong, the first and only such exemption order granted by the Commission under the Competition Ordinance