Antitrust and Competition

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Antitrust and Competition

We offer clients exceptional insight in dealing with competition agencies in the United States, Europe and around the world.

WilmerHale has one of the leading antitrust and competition practices in the United States and Europe, with more than 50 years of experience and more than 70 competition lawyers in the United States, Europe and China. We have secured antitrust clearance for hundreds of complex mergers and joint ventures, helped clients avoid fines and prison terms in many cartel investigations, and won numerous victories for clients in private and government litigation. Many of our partners and senior counsel have served in high levels of government in the United States or Europe, and all have a wealth of experience representing clients across the full range of antitrust issues. Global Competition Review has repeatedly ranked our practice in the “Top 20 Global Elite” and has distinguished the practice for its “ever-impressive antitrust team.”

Key Contacts

Meet Our Team

Experience

  • Merger Clearance

    Represented Danaher Corporation in connection with the global merger review of the $20 billion acquisition of GE Healthcare’s Biopharma business.

  • Merger Clearance

    Represented Baker Hughes in connection with the global merger review of the $32 billion combination with GE Oil & Gas, and previously with regard to Halliburton's proposed $34.6 billion acquisition of Baker Hughes.

  • Litigation

    Represented one of the world's largest auto parts manufacturers in resolving its criminal liability in the US, parallel cartel proceeding before the European Commission, and follow on US civil litigation.

  • Litigation

    Won a resounding victory as co-lead trial counsel for clients T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom in a landmark antitrust trial in which Attorneys General from 13 states and the District of Columbia failed in their effort to enjoin the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.

  • Competition Defense

    Representing Apple, Broadcom, Research in Motion and other industry participants in cases in the United States and throughout the world asserting Sherman Act Section 2 and breach of contract claims arising out of a competitor’s refusal to license patents declared essential to industry standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

  • Merger Clearance

    Advising leading academic publisher Springer Science Business Media (SSBM) in securing merger control clearance from the US Department of Justice, the European Commission and several further authorities worldwide for the combination of SSBM with the majority of Holtzbrinck-owned Macmillan Science and Education (namely Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan and the global businesses of Macmillan Education) in a joint venture with approximately EUR 1.5 billion in annual revenues.

  • Litigation

    Representing Cephalon in a prominent action brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and in separate antitrust actions by putative classes of direct and indirect purchasers of Provigil®, as well as by a would-be generic competitor, Apotex, Inc., all of which challenge Cephalon’s settlement of Hatch-Waxman patent litigation.

  • Litigation

    Representing Intel in FTC Part 3 litigation, where the FTC alleged unlawful monopolization of markets for computer microprocessors and graphics processing.

  • Acquisition Clearance

    Obtaining US clearance for International Paper’s acquisition of Temple-Inland and obtaining US, German and Chinese clearance for its acquisition of Weyerhauser’s containerboard business.

Recognition

  • Award Text

    Top Practice Area

    The Legal 500

    2018–2022

  • Award Text

    Competition Group of the Year 

    Law360

    2020

  • Award Text

    Litigation of the Year Award

    Global Competition Review

    2017-2019

  • Law360 named WilmerHale a 2020 Competition Group of the Year, a recognition which featured the firm's litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry. 
  • U.S. News - Best Lawyers® Best Law Firms regularly recognizes our antitrust practice on its annual list.
  • Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business recognized our antitrust practice in Belgium, the United States and globally from 2014–2022.
  • Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business consistently ranks our Antitrust and Cartel Enforcement practices in California, Massachusetts, Washington DC and nationally--most recently in 2022. In recent publications, clients have praised the practice's "solid and strategic" work and "responsive, wise and creative" approach, and placed us "at the very top for US law firms in cartel work."
  • Chambers Europe: Leading Lawyers for Business regularly recognizes WilmerHale’s competition practice in Germany and Belgium, most recently in 2021 and 2022.  
  • The Legal 500 US and The Legal 500 Germany has awarded WilmerHale top rankings  across the areas of antitrust since the inception of the legal directory guides.
  • Global Competition Review (GCR) consistently ranks WilmerHale among its list of "Top 20 GCR Global Elite" law firms. In addition, the firm is recognized as a standout antitrust and competition practice leader in Brussels, California, Germany, Massachusetts and Washington DC. In 2017–2019, the firm has been recognized for Litigation of the Year–Cartel Defence and in 2017 also for Litigation of the Year–Cartel Prosecution.
  • Handelsblatt Best Lawyers named several WilmerHale lawyers from the Berlin and Frankfurt offices as "Best Lawyers" in Germany in the 2013–2018 editions.

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