Samir R Gandhi co-heads the competition practice at AZB & Partners and deals with a broad range of competition law and policy issues, as well as international trade and WTO matters. Samir is a graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar and Mahindra Trust Fellow. He was a visiting fellow at Columbia Law School and is admitted to practise in India.
Samir advises on all areas of competition law and policy and has previously served as counsel to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in major litigation, including in CCI v SAIL, the first substantive competition law case decided by the Indian Supreme Court. He advises clients, both as complainants and as defendants, in behavioural cases before the CCI and the appellate courts. Most recent engagements include defending Abbott India, Toyota Motors and Mercedes Benz in vertical restraints cases; Google, ABB Ltd., Warner Bros, Esaote S.p.A and TAM Media in abuse of dominance cases, and GSK India and UFO Moviez in cartel cases.
Samir has worked on numerous merger filings and was part of the advisory team to the CCI that helped shape the 2011 merger regulations. The firm has one of the top merger control practices in India and recent work includes acting for GE in the acquisition of Alstom; Dell in the acquisition of EMC; ATC in its acquisition of Viom; SAB Miller in its acquisition by ABInbev; and Abbott Labs in its acquisition of St. Jude.
Samir routinely advises companies on their competition compliance programmes and is actively involved in competition policy issues. He has advised the Confederation of Indian Industry on the proposed amendments to the Competition Act before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. Samir was also involved in formulating a framework competition policy for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
He is a member of the antitrust section of the International Bar Association – where he serves as the Journal Editor on the Antitrust Committee; and the American Bar Association, and frequently publishes and speaks about competition law. Samir is listed as a leading competition lawyer in India by WhosWho Legal, Practical Law Company's Competition & Leniency multi-jurisdictional guide, Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Competition & Antitrust Lawyers, Legal 500 Asia Pacific by Asialaw 2016 and Chambers & Partners as being a “star individual” for competition law in India. He serves on the International Board of Advisors to the Global Antitrust Institute at the George Mason University and is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the Indian Institute for Corporate Affairs.
The competition practice at AZB & Partners comprises 28 lawyers and 2 partners and is spread across the National Capital Region, New Delhi (Noida and Gurgaon), Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. It has been recognised as a “Band 1” Firm by Chambers & Partners 2017.
