Mat Hughes

Mat is a professional antitrust economist with some 35 years of experience. Who’s Who Legal 2023 ranks Mat as an economist Thought Leader and describes Mat as “a super smart competition economist“, who "is gifted with the ability to clearly communicate complex ideas“, and "Mat is really client focused and responsive“.

Previously, Mat was chief economist in the competition department at Ashurst LLP and started his career as an economist at the UK Office of Fair Trading. He has written and spoken widely on the subject of UK/European Commission (EC) merger control, including in the International Comparative Legal Guide to Merger Control on such matters as the Competition and Markets Authority’s use of pricing pressure tests in Asda/Sainsbury, mergers in dynamic markets, trends in merger control, and the failing-firm defense. He is coauthor of UK Merger Control: Law and Practice, Third Edition. He has also written and spoken on economic analysis under UK and EC competition law, including competition pleadings in damages cases, pharma pay for delay, competition damages assessments, the UK collective action regime, stand-alone competition law actions, assessment of rebates post-Intel/Qualcomm, unilateral price announcements and the implications of big data in insurance markets. Mat has a master’s degree in economics from Queen Mary’s College.