Naval Satarawala Chopra is a Partner and co-leads the Competition/Antitrust practice at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. He is also a part of the Management Board of the firm.

He has been involved with competition law since its inception in India. He focuses on both contentious and non-contentious matters before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and appellate forums. His prominent clients include Microsoft, Meta, Bayer, National Stock Exchange, Uber, VeriFone, DLF, PVR and Abbott.

Naval is focused on disruptive industries and issues arising from the confluence of technology, intellectual property and competition law. He is best known for strategic antitrust litigation especially on complex abuse of dominance and merger control proceedings.

Naval has been involved in some of the most prominent abuse of dominance cases in India. He successfully defended WhatsApp in relation to its 2016 privacy policy and allegations of tying; Microsoft in relation to licensing terms; and Uber in relation to alleged predatory pricing. He also successfully represented several clients in separate abuse of dominance cases against Google relating to Search, Android and Payments, where the CCI fined Google in excess of USD 350 million in aggregate.

Naval has also been involved in landmark decisions relating to predatory pricing, excessive pricing and unfair terms and conditions. He is advising National Stock Exchange in its defence against an allegation of predatory pricing by MCX Stock Exchange, HT Media against T-Series (a leading Indian music label) in an excessive pricing case involving minimum guarantees and Verifone against alleged unfair terms and conditions and leveraging in the supply of POS terminals in India. He also represents Monsanto (now Bayer) in defending abuse of dominance allegations in the licensing of technology for cotton in India.

On the cartel enforcement front, Naval is presently involved in advising several global manufacturers in relation to ongoing international cartel investigations in the auto components sector as well as several other bid rigging cases in different sectors involving government contracts. He is also involved in challenges before the Delhi High Court to the CCI’s investigation in several cases on account of due process and natural justice issues.

In relation to merger control, Naval has extensively advised on Indian competition clearance for complex multi-jurisdictional mergers, including, Facebook’s investment in Jio Platforms (the largest foreign direct investment in the technology sector in India), Think and Learn’s acquisition of Aakash Educational Services (India’s largest ever education sector transaction), Avago’s acquisition of Broadcom, as well as conditional approval for Bayer acquisition of Monsanto Company. Naval recently advised UBS Group AG in seeking expedited, unconditional approval of its acquisition of Credit Suisse Group. He also advised PVR in successfully closing a case challenging its acquisition of one of its competitors.

In 2019, he won the Global Competition Review’s award for “Matter of the Year” for representing Monsanto in the Bayer-Monsanto merger and “Behavioural Matter of the Year – Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa“ for representing of Matrimony.com in its abuse of dominance claim against Google. In 2022, Naval was nominated Global Competition Review’s Lawyer of the Year and was described as “arguably India’s go-to competition lawyer for technology matters”. In 2023, he won the Behavioural Matter of the Year again for the 2022 Google Android and Payments cases.

Naval has been ranked by Chambers and Partners for Competition and Antitrust since 2017. He is valued by referees as a “very practical, commercially sound and solution-oriented business partner” who serves, not only as a “master of the subject” but a “go-to person for any kind of dispute resolution issue”.

Naval has also been listed as a “Thought Leader” in competition law, Who’s Who Legal since 2017. The 2021 listings ranked Naval as a “Global Leader” and in 2022, was described as, “one of the best-known competition lawyers in the market”. He has been ranked among the Top 100 Individual Lawyers in the Forbes India Legal Powerlist for several years.

Naval was also the first Indian lawyer in Global Competition Review’s top “40 under 40″ competition lawyers in the world survey published in 2015. In another feather in his cap, Naval’s article titled “The Curious Case of Compulsory Licensing in India”, won the award for the Best Article in the Business – Unilateral Conducts category, at the World Antitrust Writing Awards 2013.

Naval has also authored the India chapters of the Global Antitrust and Competition Law Compliance Handbook (Oxford University Press), Private Equity Antitrust (American Bar Association), Evolution of Antitrust in the Digital Era (Competition Policy International), Interplay between Competition Law and Intellectual Property and Competition and Patent Law in the Pharmaceutical Sector (both Kluwer Law International) and Merger Control Year in Review (The Law Reviews). Naval also contributes to annual publications of the ABA Section of International Law – Antitrust Committee.

Naval worked has closely with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the CCI in the finalisation of the Indian merger control regime. He is also the course director for Diploma on Competition Law at ILS Law College, Pune which he has been teaching since 2014.

He is qualified to practice in India, New York and England & Wales.

A detailed experience statement can be shared on a confidential basis.

Professional Membership

• Bar Council of Delhi
• New York Bar Association
• Law Society, England & Wales

Education

• LL.B, ILS Law College, Pune
• LL.M, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor