Simon Lee

Simon is an Associate Principal in RBB's Johannesburg office. He joined the firm in January 2018, after completing a master’s degree in behavioural economics (first class) at the University of Nottingham. Simon also holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and statistics, with honours in economics (first class), from the University of Cape Town. In his role as consultant competition economist, Simon has advised on a wide range of matters, across multiple jurisdictions, and in a variety of fora.

Since joining the firm, Simon has worked on a range of competition matters, including mergers, market inquiries, assessments of alleged abuses of dominance, and damages litigations arising from cartel conduct. He has advised clients on matters before the European, South African, Namibian, and Tanzanian competition authorities, as well as in various court, litigation, and arbitration settings.

This experience spans a range of sectors, including air travel, construction, gambling, fast-moving consumer goods, medical supplies, telecommunications, forestry, energy and utilities, banking, online platforms, and tech markets. Simon has also been actively involved in providing economic commentary on regulatory interventions, such as the draft price discrimination and buyer power regulations published in 2019, the draft extended producer responsibility regulations published in 2020, NERSA's methodology for determining the maximum price for natural gas in South Africa, and various sets of guidelines published by the South African Competition Commission.

Some of Simon’s more recent work includes providing advice in the context of the South African Competition Commission’s online intermediation platforms market inquiry, Digital Realty’s acquisition of Teraco Data Environments, litigation regarding ICASA’s allocation of radio frequency spectrum, Synopsys’ acquisition of Ansys, Sun International’s planned acquisition of Peermont, as well as various excessive, predatory, and differential pricing allegations before the South African competition authorities. He has additionally played a role in various private arbitrations involving contractual disputes.