George’s practice covers a wide range of public law, regulatory and tax issues, with particular strengths in competition and State aid, pharmaceuticals, VAT and customs/trade remedies, and agriculture. George has recently won a number of major cases in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, European Court of Justice and General Court and regularly leads in the senior English courts as well as in specialist tribunals such as the Competition Appeal Tribunal, Upper Tribunal, and the Tax and General Regulatory Chambers of the First-tier Tribunal. Until he took silk in 2015, George had for many years been a member of the Attorney General’s Panels, including the A panel from 2009, in which capacity he advised and represented the UK Government on a wide range of major EU and public law cases, including many cases in the European Court of Justice and higher English courts.
Recent and current cases in which George has been acting include: successfully defending HMRC against a State aid claim related to the bankers’ bonus tax (Credit Suisse); acting for the European Commission in the Lundbeck and Servier “pay for delay” pharmaceutical cases in the European Court of Justice and General Court; acting for the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products and Regulatory Agency in a number of High Court and Court of Appeal cases on marketing authorisations, including the Avastin litigation now in the Court of Appeal as well as an important ECJ case on the interpretation of the Medicines Directive (here); acting for an importer challenging the imposition of anti-dumping duty and countervailing measures on the ground that the EU regulation fixing the origin of the product is invalid; acting for HMRC in the Supreme Court on what will be a leading case on gaming duty; acting for a number of companies and trade associations in the course of CMA investigations; acting for the campaigning organisation Avaaz on the Fox/Sky merger and in particular representing it in a judicial review of OFCOM’s decision on fitness of Fox News as a potential owner of Sky; defending DEFRA in a substantial Francovich claim arising out of the common agricultural policy; acting for a former bankrupt in a claim that EU free movement rules require his Irish pension fund to be afforded the same protection as that accorded to funds registered in the UK; acting for the legal campaigner Jolyon Maugham in a challenge to the legality of the UK/EU Withdrawal Agreement on the basis that it contravenes a statutory provision prohibiting the Government from entering into arrangements under which Northern Ireland becomes a separate customs territory from Great Britain; and successfully acting in the Court of Appeal for those suffering narcolepsy caused by flu vaccine in a test case concerning their ability of to claim payments under the Vaccine Damages Act (here).
George is Joint Chair of the Joint Working Party of UK Bars and Law Societies on Competition Law and Joint Convenor of the UK State Aid Law Association. He was also from 2017-2019 General Rapporteur of the Ligue Internationale du Droit de la Concurrence.
George has written widely on Brexit-related legal issues, ranging from articles in the European State Aid Law Quarterly to pieces in the Guardian and Prospect magazine and contributing to BBC Radio 4 documentaries. He is a founder member of the UK Trade Forum. George has given oral and written evidence to the House of Lords EU Committee on State aid post-Brexit, to the House of Commons International Trade Select Committee on trade remedies after Brexit, to the House of Commons Northern Ireland Select Committee on State aid issues in relation to the NI heating incentive scheme, and to the House of Commons Brexit Select Committee on level playing field commitments. He advised a number of MPs on issues relating to the “Common Market 2.0” proposal for a “soft” Brexit. He also comments on Brexit developments and other legal matters on Twitter (@GeorgePeretzQC).
George was called to the Irish Bar in 2018 and is a member of the Law Library of Ireland. In that capacity, he is not only able to represent clients in the Irish Courts but also will be able to continue representing clients in the EU Courts, and to give advice covered by EU legal professional privilege, whatever the outcome of the Brexit process.
QC 2015. Attorney General’s A Panel. Publications of note: contributor to ‘Bellamy & Child on the Common Market Law of Competition’ (procedure and enforcement in 2007 edition), to Smith and Ward’s ‘Competition Litigation in the UK’, and to PLC Competition Law manual. Legal advisor to the OFT, 1992-97. George was one of the joint authors of the second edition of Blackstone’s Guide to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. He is a consulting editor of the UK Competition Law Reports, and has written articles on competition law for the Competition Law Journal, European Competition Law Review, PLC and The Lawyer. George has given talks on a wide variety of competition law issues to training conferences (such as IBC, Hawksmere and PLC), government lawyers, the Solicitors’ European Group, and individual companies and firms of solicitors. He has also given talks on VAT and freedom of information issues to various audiences.
Good working knowledge of French and Spanish: he can accept instructions in, and read documents in, both languages, and has given talks on competition law in French. Basic knowledge of German.
George is Joint Chair of the Joint Working Party of UK Bars and Law Societies on Competition Law and Joint Convenor of the UK State Aid Law Association. He was also from 2017-2019 General Rapporteur of the Ligue Internationale du Droit de la Concurrence.
Exeter College, Oxford; (1988 BA Hons 2(1) PPE; 1989 Diploma in Law).