Noel Beale  Associate Commercial, Competition Qualifications: LLM, MSc (Economics) Admitted a solicitor 2000 Contact:  +44 (0) 117 902 7191 noel.beale@burges-salmon.com Noel joined Burges Salmon from Ashurst in London. Noel specialises in providing both legal advice and economic analysis to clients in relation to all aspects of UK and EC competition law and regulation. He has wide experience in dealing with the OFT (and other UK sectoral regulators), the European Commission and antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions in relation to both merger control and the application of competition law to a wide range of commercial agreements and practices. Noel was seconded to the OFT during the implementation phase of the Competition Act 1998 and worked on some of the original OFT Competition Act guidelines. Noel's specialist economics qualifications and experience facilitate an in-depth understanding of some of the more complicated economic issues that often arise in competition cases. His distinctive combination of industrial economics expertise and legal skills also facilitate the provision of practical advice to businesses that are subject to economic regulation (e.g. in the rail, telecoms, water and energy sectors). Specific recent public examples of cases Noel has worked on include: advising Foster Yeoman Limited in relation to its proposed acquisition by Aggregate Industries advising FirstGroup plc in relation to its acquisitions of various passenger rail franchises, including the Greater Western franchise, before the OFT and the Competition Commission advising Centrica Telecommunications Limited in relation to a complaint to OFCOM concerning certain pricing behaviour of BT plc (including making an application for interim protective measures) advising P&O in relation to Stena Line's acquisition of certain ferry routes before the Competition Commission (the first Competition Commission reference under the Enterprise Act 2002) advising Healthcare at Home Ltd in relation to its successful complaint to the OFT concerning a margin squeeze by Genzyme Ltd (including making an application for interim protective measures) Recent publications: "The Somerfield Decisions of the Competition Commission and Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Economics of Divestment Remedies" (2006) Competition Law Journal 45 "Is the PPRS anti-competitive?" 2005 SCRIP Magazine, December (with James Chard) "Customer Surveys in UK Merger Cases – the Art and Science of Asking the Right People the Right Questions" [2005] European Competition Law Review 297 (with Mat Hughes) Noel also contributed to the economic analysis chapter of the second edition of "UK Merger Control: Law and Practice" Parr, Finbow and Hughes (the standard textbook on UK merger control) and to the "Analysis of Economic Models for the Calculation of Damages" part of the European Commission's recent study on the conditions of claims for damages in cases of infringement of EC competition rules.