Merger Control, Foreign Direct Investment and Foreign Subsidies Regulation
- Amgen on its $28.3 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics
- Abiomed in its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson for approximately $18 billion
- Biohaven Pharmaceutical on its $11.6 billion acquisition by Pfizer
- Bosch on its $8 billion acquisition of Johnson Controls’ and Hitachi’s HVAC business as well as the acquisition of a minority share in Swedish Husqvarna
- Chevron on the full range of competition matters, including in relation to the acquisition of Neste Oy’s base oil business and the sale of certain North Sea assets
- Delivery Hero in relation to the $1 billion sale of its German food delivery business to Takeaway.com
- Deutsche Wohnen on its $19 billion acquisition by Vonovia
- Flix in relation to an investment by EQT and Kühne
- Harris Corp. on its $35 billion merger with L3 Technologies
- home24 in relation to its voluntary public takeover by Austrian-based furniture retail company XXXLutz
- Kering in relation to its acquisitions of Maui Jim and Creed
- K+S on the full range of competition matters, including on the $3.2 billion sale of its American salt business and the creation of its waste management joint venture with Remondis
- Lundin Mining Corporation in connection with its and BHP’s definitive agreement with Filo Corp. to jointly acquire 100% of Filo’s issued and outstanding common shares
- Majorel (owned by Bertelsmann and Saham) in connection with the voluntary public takeover by Teleperformance and the (abandoned) merger with Sitel
- Neiman Marcus Group (NMG) in relation to its $2.65 billion acquisition by HBC
- Schaeffler on the full range of competition matters, including in relation to the Vitesco restructuring
- Seagen on its $43 billion acquisition by Pfizer
- Tiffany & Co. on its $16 billion acquisition by LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton
- Triton in its $13.3 billion acquisition by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners
- VMware (and its co-owner Silver Lake) on the merger control and FDI aspects of its $69 billion acquisition by Broadcom
- Zalando on its pending €1.1 billion voluntary public takeover offer to all shareholders of ABOUT YOU
Abuse of dominance and Digital Markets Act
Michael has extensive experience advising clients on unilateral conduct issues under Article 102 TFEU and the EU’s platform regulation (DMA), including counseling clients that may be found to hold a dominant position, defending targets of investigations and representing complainants in such investigations (including Airbnb, Amadeus, Air France, AT&T, Circana, Dell, Dolby, Intel, K+S, Live Nation, Sisvel, Spotify, Symantec, Tyco and YouTube).
Cartel Investigations
Michael regularly represents clients at all stages of high risk cartel investigations, with particular focus on complex leniency cases before the European Commission and subsequent EU and national follow-on litigation (including investigations related to baby food, bathroom products, biofuels, block trains, capacitors, de-icing salt, elevators, ethanol benchmarks, fashion, forex, motor insurance, ODD, oil, tyres and VAT refund).
Litigation
Michael regularly represents clients in antitrust-based national litigation matters in the major Member States, including for Mylan in relation to its Lundbeck follow-on litigation, and also has significant experience before the European courts in relation to EU litigation which results from investigations before the European Commission, including for BMW in relation to the EC’s electric car state aid decision.
Speaking Engagements
- Speaker, Global Competition Review Live’s Law Leaders Global (Miami), “Convergence or Divergence Across the Atlantic and Over the Channel” (2024)
