Christoph Arhold

Counsel, Berlin, Brussels

Biography

Overview

Christoph Arhold's main practice areas are German and European competition law, including mergers, cartels and—in particular—State aid. He also has substantial experience in other fields of European Community law, such as the fundamental freedoms of the Common Market and trade law.

Christoph Arhold has advised German and international clients in various industries, including glass, chemicals, transport and financial services. He also represents the German Government in cases before the highest national administrative courts and the European Court of Justice (ECJ). He has significant know-how in representing clients in State aid cases before both the European Commission and the European Community Courts. He obtained the first ever suspension order in a State aid case before the Community Courts in the landmark TGI case. In another landmark case, he achieved the first ever judgment of the European Courts confirming the right to access to documents in State aid procedures.

He is recognized as highly recommended lawyer in the directories JUVE and Handelsblatt in 2020.

Christoph Arhold regularly publishes and speaks on State aid and other EC law topics (see list below), and is also visiting lecturer for EC State aid law at the Europa-Institut of the University of Saarland.

Before joining White & Case, Christoph Arhold worked as an assistant to Prof. Dr. Torsten Stein, University of Saarland (Germany), as an assistant to a member of the European Parliament and, as part of his legal training, in the cabinet of Prof. Dr. Günter Hirsch, a former judge at the ECJ.

Bars and Courts
Rechtsanwalt
Education
Second State Exam
Higher Regional Court of Saarbrücken
First State Exam
University of Saarland
Languages
German
English
French

Experience

EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW)
Advised EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW) on the sale of its second minority shareholding of 24.95 percent in the transmission system operator TransnetBW GmbH (TransnetBW) to KfW.

STEAG
Adcised STEAG GmbH on the sale of 49 percent of the shares in its wind farm portfolio in France to an infrastructure fund of Allianz Global Investors. STEAG remains majority shareholder with 51 percent and continues to be responsible for commercial and technical management.

Publications

"State aid in the energy crisis" (Staatliche Beihilfen in der Energiekrise), Börsen-Zeitung SPEZIAL, Issue 232, December 2022, Pages 10-11

Co-author, "Continuity and change ‒ The DAWI reform package of the European Commission (Kontinuität und Wandel – Das DAWI-Reformpaket der EU-Kommission)", PUBLICUS, Issue 4, Pages 17-20, 2012 (with Lars Ole Petersen)

Co-author, "German Federal Court of Justice strengthens procedural rights for competitors of recipients of potential State aid" in the European Sate aid Law Quarterly No. 2 2011, News from the Member States (with Kai Struckmann, Franziska Zibold)

"The German Scheme on the Fiscal Carryforward of Losses – a 'Selected Case'," EStAL, Issue 1, Pages 71-79, 2011

"State Aid for Financial Restructuring (Staatshilfe zur finanziellen Restrukturierung)," Praxishandbuch des Restrukturierungsrechts. Ed. Rüdiger Theiselmann. Cologne, 2010

"Guidelines on the application for low interest loans under the KfW special programs (Praxisleitfaden zur Nutzung des KfW-Sonderprogramms)," Corporate Finance Law, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 58–63, 2010

Awards and Recognition

Best Lawyer Germany in Public Finance Law, Handelsblatt 2021-2023

Highly Recommended Lawyer: State Aid Law, JUVE 2019/2020