Hausfeld has hired antitrust lawyer Daniel Hunt from Freshfields to bolster its competition disputes coverage amid a rise in class action claims in the UK and the EU.

Hunt will join as a partner in the firm’s London office at the start of next year. He leaves Freshfields, where he trained and qualified, after 13 years. He became a counsel in April 2023. His practice covers competition law and antitrust litigation, spanning both mainstream antitrust practice and collective actions.

While at Freshfields, Hunt worked on the ongoing Trucks cartel litigation, as well as for clients in the utilities and financial services sectors facing allegations of anti-competitive conduct and multi-jurisdictional cartel claims. 

Freshfields has been active in defending collective actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, where its defence mandates span much of the CAT’s ongoing workload, including the Walter Merricks-led MasterCard class action that was putatively settled last week, pending a hearing in January 2025.

Hunt’s CAT experience, and related first instance, appellate and past EU court experience will boost Hausfeld’s standing in both mainstream investigations and regulatory work. His arrival brings the firm’s claimant-centred competition disputes team to 12 partners and 43 lawyers, and follows the arrival of veteran litigator Greg Lascelles from Covington & Burling earlier this year.

The firm recently received the green light for a £7bn class action against tech giant Google, after having secured certification.

Scott Campbell, head of competition disputes, said: “Daniel’s impressive experience will further strengthen our capabilities in London, as we continue to seek redress for our clients through private actions for damages.”

Campbell added: “We expect our workload to continue its growth trajectory through follow-on and stand-alone actions for damages brought by our corporate clients alongside our thriving collective actions practice before the CAT here in England as well as in other major EU jurisdictions.”

Hunt said he was pleased to join the firm given “there is such momentum behind competition disputes in the UK and across the EU”. His remarks follow a new class action that was launched last week against Microsoft, brought by Italian competition lawyer Dr Maria Luisa Stasi.

Stasi instructed Scott + Scott, together with counsel from Brick Court and One Essex Court, on behalf of UK businesses allegedly being overcharged for licensing use of Microsoft’s Windows Server software.

Certification was also granted last week to a class action against Facebook, allowing it to proceed to trial in the CAT, in which Quinn Emanuel is acting for another European antitrust expert, Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, in a claim estimated to be worth £2.1bn. The claim is being supported by litigation funders Innsworth, which also funded the Merricks class action, with whom it is now in bitter dispute.