CRA client projects in North America and Europe received top honors at the Global Competition Review (GCR) Awards 2014 on March 25 in Washington, DC, including Merger Control Matter of the Year in the Americas and Europe. GCR is the world's leading antitrust and competition law journal and news service. It presents annual awards to recognize the achievements of teams and individuals from private practice firms, corporate legal departments, economic consultancies, academic organizations, and competition authorities.

This year, the Office Depot/Office Max merger was named Merger Control Matter of the Year - Americas. This award, which acknowledges creative, strategic competition work on a landmark merger control matter, is shared among the lawyers, economists, and consultants that played leading roles in the merger. According to GCR, voters acknowledged this case and its comprehensive, seven-month antitrust review as an exemplary case at the pinnacle of contemporary mergers and acquisition practice.

CRA economists advised Simpson Thacher, counsel to Office Depot, throughout the review by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Economic analysis showing the changing nature of the retail market due to online competition and expansion by other retail formats were significant considerations in the FTC's decision to clear the $1.2 billion merger without any conditions. CRA's team was led by Peter Boberg and Andrew Dick and included Courtney Stoddard, Josh Lustig, and Spencer Graf.

Aer Lingus was named Merger Control Matter of the Year for Europe. CRA economist Cristina Caffarra advised counsel to Aer Lingus, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, throughout investigations by the UK Competition Commission (CC) and European Commission (EC) of Ryanair's ownership stake in Aer Lingus. On February 27, 2013, the EC prohibited the acquisition of Aer Lingus by Ryanair following an in depth investigation. On August 28, 2013, the CC required Ryanair to sell down its shareholding in Aer Lingus from a 29.8 percent stake to 5 percent.

CRA was also involved with the the German Rail Cartel follow-on litigation, which was named Litigation of the Year. This award acknowledges strategic, innovative litigation on behalf of a defendant, plaintiff, complainant, or class. CRA economist Matthias Pflanz is advising Deutsche Bahn alongside counsel at WilmerHale in the single largest follow-on litigation in Germany.

Recipients of these awards are nominated and voted for by GCR's readership of competition professionals worldwide. This year's awards saw the largest turnout of voters to date, with more than 3,000 votes cast by subscribers on the biggest competition matters of the last 12 months.

CRA is also pleased to announce that 39 of our competition economists and academic affiliates are included in The International Who's Who of Competition Lawyers and Economists. This is the fifth consecutive year CRA has topped the list.

For a complete listing of CRA's Who's Who economists, please click here.

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