Sofie Edwards

Counsel
London

she / her / hers

OVERVIEW

Sofie is a dual-qualified Counsel who has significant cross-border experience working on large-scale competition and commercial disputes, with a focus on investigating and bringing proceedings, including collective actions, against those who have breached competition law.

Expertise

Sofie has significant experience advising on many complex contentious proceedings across a broad range of business sectors, involving both English, Australian, and foreign law – often across multiple jurisdictions. She predominately works on market-leading, high profile and high value commercial, regulatory and competition litigation in the England & Wales High Court and in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). In recent years, she has very much worked at the forefront of the collective actions regime in the UK and is pivotal member of several Hausfeld teams that are bringing collective actions for alleged abuses of dominance before the CAT, against some of the largest technology companies globally.

Sofie was involved in defending two of the early collective actions for competitions harms previously at Slaughter and May, London and started her career at King & Wood Mallesons in Australia.

Clients

Sofie has worked for clients in several sectors including technology, finance, aviation, travel, government, manufacturing, and telecommunications.

Working towards a diverse, equitable and inclusive work force is paramount to Sofie who is an active member of Hausfeld's Social Inclusion group.

At Hausfeld, Sofie is part of the legal team which:
- Filed an opt-out collective action with the CAT on behalf of an estimated 19.5 million eligible UK users of smartphones and tablets running on Google’s Android operating system relating to excessive and unlawful charges on purchase in the Google Play App Store. The claim alleges that Google unfairly restricts consumers from accessing potential competition from other app distributors, by requiring smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a bundle of Google’s proprietary apps and services including the Google Play Store as well as imposing other contractual and technical restrictions.
- Filed a representative collective action with the CAT on behalf of some 19.6 million eligible UK iPhone and iPad users relating to excessive and unlawful charges by the Apple App Store. The claim alleges that Apple’s conduct violates section 18 of the UK Competition Act 1998 and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
- Filed a representative collective action with the CAT on behalf of the Consumers’ Association (known as Which?) against Qualcomm on behalf of a class of around 29 million UK consumers alleging that Qualcomm abuses its dominance in the markets for smartphone chipsets and standard essential patents, the result of which is that Qualcomm is able to overcharge smartphone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung for its technology. Damages are estimated to be over £480 million.
- Assisted in pursuing damages claims relating to auto-parts cartels for several leading automotive manufacturers.
Prior to joining Hausfeld, Sofie worked on a wide range of competition matters in multiple jurisdictions. Her experience includes:
- Defending a major financial institution in relation to multiple high profile and high value damages claims in the High Court of England & Wales (brought by more than one hundred major investment funds, hedge funds and pension funds, against several leading international banks) and in two competing applications for a collective proceedings order before the Competition Appeal Tribunal. These proceedings all relate to prior high-profile investigations conducted by various regulators worldwide.
- Defending a major transport provider on the first standalone proposed collective proceedings brought before the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
- Advising a major UK plc trading in the manufacturing section on multiple follow-on actions arising out of a finding of infringement by a European competition authority.
- Acting for Flight Centre Limited in a legally novel competition litigation dispute with argued penalties of many millions of dollars with the Australian competition regulator, which ultimately was determined by the Australian High Court (the highest appellant court).
Sofie’s commercial disputes experience so far includes:
- Advising an international broadcaster on their on-going commercial and strategic relationship with an international sporting body relating to their broadcasting and contractual rights in light of COVID-19.
- Advising a large car manufacturer on a business critical contractual dispute.
- Acting for a major airline to pursue a trademark contractual dispute against another major airline.
- Advising a UK plc trading in the retail sector on an internal investigation into whistle-blower allegations in relation to bribery and corruption.
- Advising a market leading fintech company on a contractual dispute with a major banking group.
- Advising a major international regulated financial institution on investigations into regulatory obligations and alleged instances of bribery, corruption and/or other improper practices.
- Strategically advising a global resources company on a potential class action.
- Advising a large UK insurance underwriter on a dispute in relation to a Joint Venture contract.
- Acting for a major Australian financial services provider in relation to various aspects and hearings that arose from the Australian Royal Commission into the Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
- Assisting General Purpose Liquidators to locate and examine, under the Corporations Insolvency regime, various directors of a substantial mining company, including advising on many aspects of cross-border searches, warrants and preparations for the examinations more generally.
- Defending two major financial funders including one based in the United Kingdom on a large-scale project funding dispute for an estimated quantum of approximately AUD400 million.
- Defending an American owned UK-based software development client to defend an approximately AUD20 million action brought by a major oil company in New South Wales.
- Advising on discrete matters for a large Queensland natural resources company in an international arbitration involving a complex multi-million-dollar contractual dispute.
- Advising a major resources company on taxation and royalties judicial review applications for by example approximately AUD300 million payable to the Queensland government.
- Acting for the main defendant on the then largest class action by damages sought in Australian history of approximately AUD1 billion, following extensive flooding that occurred in 2011.
- Advising a large-scale American company on the defence of a misleading and deceptive conduct claim by Australian shareholders for approximately AUD50 million.
- Working on proceedings pursued by a large telecommunications company against the local government which included aspects of property law, taxation law and constitutional law, the result of which being legislation was found to be discriminatory and void.