Representative examples of European regulatory projects recently handled by our European Union Regulatory Group include the following:

• Represented a large Swiss hub airport before the European Commission and the German courts, including the German Supreme Court, in a dispute on the use of the airspace of Germany for approaches to and departures from the airport, including advice on negotiations on a bilateral treaty and on strategic options.
• Completed a comprehensive study on European air space management and design, leading a consortium of legal, technical and policy experts. The recommendations of the study laid the ground for and are reflected in the EU regulatory framework for the creation of a single European sky.
• Completed a detailed analysis of the EU rules concerning the unbundling of railway infrastructure management and railway operations for a major European railway company in the context of a series of infringement proceedings initiated by the European Commission against almost all EU Member States concerning the implementation of the EU’s First Railway Package.

• Assisted a major European mobile telecommunications group against the initiative of Commissioner Viviane Reding concerning international roaming tariffs and advised the group on challenging the resulting regulation before the European Court of Justice.
• Represent a major European telecommunications operator in landmark litigation before the European Court of Justice concerning an alleged margin squeeze in the local loop.

• Advise on compliance with European privacy rules in the context of advertising and marketing campaigns, lotteries and loyalty programmes, sales and purchases of customer lists and unsolicited commercial communications.
• Counsel a global provider of outsourced human resources benefits management about compliance with European and international privacy and data transfer laws, including those applicable to sensitive (e.g., medical and financial) personal information; privacy and security obligations in connection with large-scale outsourcing; and security incident response and state and international breach notification obligations.
• Drafted corporate codes of conduct that respect European and international data protection obligations and allow appropriate US Sarbanes-Oxley Act oversight, including anonymous whistle-blowing.

• Provided comprehensive legal advice to a leading European energy company on the legality of the European Commission’s proposal for ownership unbundling under EU and German constitutional law.
• Acted as regular strategic and policy counsel to a coalition of leading US and European clean technology companies concerning key aspects of global climate change negotiations, including comprehensive advice on their EU, US and global public policy strategy.
• Represented a leading European electricity generator before the European Courts in an application for annulment of the European Commission's approval of the German national allocation plan for greenhouse gas emission trading certificates.

• Established, advised and represented German food and beverage producers and German retailers in their ground-breaking and successful effort to create a German nationwide deposit system for the collection of approximately 16 billion one-way packages per year.
• Represented a plastic materials producer before German administrative courts in litigation against Germany concerning the compatibility of departure routes from Frankfurt airport across the client's chemicals plant with the EU directive on the control of major accident hazards.
• Advised numerous clients, in particular in the tech sector, on compliance with the WEEE and RoHS Directives and on how to structure systems for collection of electronic waste.

• Advise a group of large hedge funds on the evolution of EU and national regulatory requirements applicable to alternative fund managers, including hedge funds and private equity funds, as well as the regulation of traditional asset management and investment funds, particularly related to marketing rules.
• Counseled a leading credit card issuer on consumer credit rules and credit card regulation, from a consumer protection, financial services (SEPA) and competition law (interchange) perspective.

• Assisted the Philippine carrageenan industry and the Philippine government in reversing a change in the EU standards for this food additive that would have shut it out of the market.
• Advised a leading integrated meat processor on dealing with an animal health crisis, including development of a strategy to reintroduce imports of meat products from disease-free regions.

• Advised a leading seed producer on various EU and German regulatory issues relating to GMOs and represented the company in litigation in Germany relating to allegedly dangerous GMO maize and relating to information claims brought by an NGO asking the client to disclose certain confidential data submitted in a GMO authorization procedure.
• Represented a leading US medical device manufacturer in proceedings before the European Commission and Member States agencies with potential worldwide impact on standards for natural rubber latex used in surgical gloves.
• Advised a major diversified consumer products company on a strategy to bring tooth whitening products to market and helped the company to navigate the requirements of the EU’s Cosmetics, Medical Devices and Medicinal Products Directives.

• Represented several major pharmaceutical companies in a series of landmark public procurement litigation matters regarding the application of the procurement rules to German public health insurers and insurance funds (discount agreements for drugs).
• Represented the successful bidder in public procurement litigation before the German Federal Cartel Office and the Higher Regional Court of Duesseldorf regarding the German truck toll system.

• Provided comprehensive support to a leading German retail group, and to its mail order subsidiary, including representation before the European Commission and in negotiations with the German government.
• Represented an intervener in proceedings before the European Court of First Instance concerning the European Commission’s decision prohibiting preferential landing charges for Ryanair at Charleroi airport as illegal state aid.
• Represented the European subsidiary of Nomura, the leading Japanese financial services group, in a series of (now settled) state aid complaints and litigation before the EU General Court against Czech aid granted to the banking sector.