
Antitrust Law Meets High-Tech Companies:
Legal Challenges Facing High-Tech Companies
January 25, 2021
Technology companies face unique challenges when confronted with antitrust and competition issues. The lawyers in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Global Antitrust Group, including members of its European Competition practice, bring exceptional expertise to this dynamic area and include former top officials from the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission.
Interpreting laws written decades ago for new technologies and business practices requires a deep understanding of the law and of emerging technologies. It also requires an ability to work with government regulators in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and around the world on merger clearance and enforcement investigations, as well as experience in coordinating complex high-profile litigation by private plaintiffs.
As a new administration in the United States moves ahead, Germany has recently introduced and the European Union considers more sweeping powers to address competition, and private plaintiffs become more aggressive with multi-jurisdiction litigation, technology companies need sophisticated advisers more than ever.
While much of our antitrust work for technology companies is confidential, a few recent engagements include matters for:
- Amazon.com in its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market;
- American Express in its acquisition of fintech company Kabbage;
- Delivery Hero S.E. in the sale of its German food delivery operations to Takeaway.com;
- DISH in its purchase of assets from Sprint, enabling DISH to enter the U.S. wireless market as the fourth-largest cellular phone company provider;
- Fiserv in its $22 billion acquisition of First Data Corporation;
- Harris Corporation in its $35 billion merger with L3 Technologies Inc., the largest-ever defense industry merger (handled by the European Commission’s tech merger unit);
- HelloFresh SE in the German company’s acquisition of Factor75 Inc.;
- Hitachi in the European Commission’s concluded global capacitors cartel investigation and in follow-on litigation;
- Intel in competition law matters, including the $1 billion sale of its 5G smartphone modem business to Apple; and
- Spotify in connection with advocacy relating to competition in the digital markets.
Meet the co-heads of our Antitrust and European Competition practices.




Learn more about our Global Antitrust and European Competition practices and explore our insights in the following recent podcasts, articles and publications.
- Antitrust and Tech in Focus: Six Key Questions
- Memo: Major German Competition Law Reform Introduces Merger Control Changes and Claims Role as Leading Tech Antitrust Enforcer
- Memo: Brexit: Implications for Global Transactions
- S&C Lawyers Win “Best Antitrust Business Article” for Analysis of Qualcomm Patent Licensing Dispute
- Renata Hesse Co-Authors Chapter in The Intellectual Property and Antitrust Review
- Memo: EU Antitrust Law: Regulating Big Tech
- Podcast: S&C Critical Insights–Implications of the Ninth Circuit's Qualcomm Patent Licensing Decision