Axel Schulz
Biography
Overview
Axel is the Executive Partner of the Brussels office. He supports clients in a broad range of German and European Commission competition law matters.
Regularly called upon to head up teams of the Firm's lawyers, Axel is noted for his skill in coordinating advice across multiple offices and territories, to provide his clients with clear and creative solutions to their problems.
Axel's significant track record includes a number of high-profile competition cases, such as 'Toshiba v. Commission' – in which the General Court of the European Union annulled in full the €90.9 million fine imposed on Toshiba by the European Commission, for its alleged participation in the Gas Insulated Switchgear cartel. He also worked on Toshiba's Cathode Ray Tube appeal, as well as the oral hearings in T-113/07 before the European Court of Justice, and the Transformers (Case COMP/39.129) hearing before the General Court.
Axel offers clients the benefit of his significant experience in competition law, having handled merger control cases involving collective dominance and countervailing buyer power, as well as structural links issues in industries including aluminum, paper, energy, automotive, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
He is a particularly valued resource for clients in the pharmaceutical industry. He has developed a strong track record of helping clients with competition law issues in the fields of distribution, co-marketing, licensing and other kinds of vertical and horizontal cooperation agreements.
Axel's varied sector knowledge is matched by his deep understanding of the cross-border intricacies of competition and antitrust law. The international dimension to his practice enables him to guide both domestic and multinational companies through whatever competitive issues they face, regardless of their scale or multijurisdictional complexity.
Experience
His recent experience includes advising:
- Dainippon Ink Corporation in the acquisition of BASF's pigment business with merger control filings in 11 countries, including the European Commission (M.9677), the FTC and the JFTC.
- Italian pharmaceutical company Angelini in the acquisition of a divestiture package from GSK (M.9274)
- Saudi Aramco in a merger with SABIC that included merger filings in over 20 countries (M.9410)
- Delta Electronics in the US$2.14 billion public bid over Delta Electronics Thailand (M.9048)
- Nidec in the Phase II merger investigation in relation to its US$1.08 billion acquisition of Whirlpool's Embraco (M.8947)
- Hikma Pharmaceuticals in the purchase of a remedy package in the Pfizer/Hospira deal (M.7559)
- Toyota Industries Corporation on the €1.16 billion acquisition of logistics automation company Vanderlande, its largest-ever acquisition (M.8391)
- Arabian shipping company UASC on a merger with Hapag Lloyd (M.8120)
- Zimmer Holdings in the US$14 billion Zimmer/Biomet merger, in which the European Commission gave its approval an unprecedented two months before the formal deadline (M.7265)
- Nordic Capital on dozens of mergers, including the recent acquisition in Finland of iLOQ from Sievi Capital and other shareholders by Nordic Capital Fund IX
The Legal 500 webinar on "The Future of Global Merger Control – Spotlight on Tech and Pharma in the US, UK, EU, and Middle East", 23 September 2021 (Panelist)
Annual Seminar on Merger Control & State Aid "Merger Control of International M&A Transactions & Joint Ventures", 10-11 May 2017, 29-30 May 2018 & 16-18 June 2021: Europa-Institut, Saarbrücken, Germany (Speaker)
Advanced EU Competition Law, "Merger Control in Practice: Best Practice", 25 November 2020: Informa, webinar (Leader of panel)
47th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law & Policy, "Merger Issues – A Global Perspective", 8 October 2020: Fordham Competition Law Institute, webinar (Panelist)
White & Case webinar on "Merger control in the time of COVID-19", 31 March 2020 (Leader of panel)
Advanced EU Competition Law, "Merger control: Best practice and practical challenges", 27 November 2019: Informa, Brussels, Belgium (Leader of panel)
Competition Law in the Pharma Sector 2018 "Merger Control in the Pharmaceutical Sector", 4 December 2018: Informa, Brussels, Belgium (Speaker)
Advanced EU Competition Law "Current Practical Challenges in Merger Control", 21 November 2018: Informa, Brussels, Belgium (Speaker)
European Pharma Law Academy 2018 "Market Definition, Patent Settlements and other Abusive Conduct", 12 September 2018: Knecht 365, Cambridge, United Kingdom (Speaker)
Vertical Restraints & Distribution 2018 "Procedural Developments in Vertical Restraints & Distribution", 27 June 2018: Informa, Brussels, Belgium (Speaker)
MedTech Summit "Recent antitrust developments in the pharma field", 11 June 2018: Informa/ Knecht 365, Brussels, Belgium (Speaker)
European Pharma Law Academy "Article 101 – Vertical and Horizontal Relationships" & "Competition law and IPRs in the pharma sector", 13 September 2017: IBC, Cambridge, United Kingdom (Speaker)
The Global Antitrust Economics Conference "Market Manipulation in the Financial & Energy Sectors", 7 October 2016: Concurrences + Searle Center on Law, Regulation and Economic Growth at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Chicago, United States of America (Speaker)
Brussels Distribution Conference "Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) - Latest Cases and Developments", 1 October 2015: DBB Law, Brussels, Belgium (Panelist)
EU Competition Law Summit 2014 "Round table on Cartels & Dawn raids", 11 September 2014: QED, Brussels, Belgium (Panelist)
Vertical Agreements: Experience with Reg. 330/2010 "Online sales", 25 June 2014: IBC Legal, Brussels, Belgium (Speaker)
Pharma Patent Lifecycles "Patent Protection vs. Abuse of Dominance", 21 June 2012: C5, London, United Kingdom Presentation(Speaker)
7th Annual Conference on Parallel Trade "Parallel trade from a Competition Law Perspective — an Update", 7 February 2013: SMI, London, United Kingdom (Speaker)
Pharmaceutical Law Academy "Pharma Sector Competition Law Developments", 7 September 2011: IBC, London, United Kingdom (Speaker)
Pharma Patent Lifecycles - The Latest Regulatory Developments and Proven Successful Strategies for Patent Lifecycle Extensions in light of Recent European and US Case Law " Guidelines on Negotiating Patent Settlement Agreements ", 21–22 June 2011: C5, London, United Kingdom Presentation(Speaker)
Introduction & "European Union", Getting the Deal Through – Market Intellingence: Merger Control, January 2021"EU Developments in the Pharmaceutical Sector", Getting the Deal Through - Pharma & Medical Device Regulation 2019, 2020 & 2021
"EU Merger Control", Merger Control Comparative Guide (5th Edition), The Legal 500, October 2020 (with Jan Jeram)"Tackling market distortions from foreign subsidies", GCR, 07 August 2020 (with Genevra Forwood, James Killick & Marc Israel)"European Union: Pharmaceuticals", The European, Middle Eastern and African Antitrust Review 2021, GCR, July 2020 (with Jérémie Jourdan, James Killick, Assimakis Komninos, and Strati Sakellariou-Witt)"Covid-19 meets merger control: practical tips", IFLR, 15 June 2020
"Protecting European critical assets from foreign investment following the Covid-19 crisis", Global Banking & Finance Review, May 2020"Merger Control in times of COVID-19: Time for a change", Informa Connect Law's ComplawBlog, March 2020"EU Merger Control", Merger Control Comparative Guide (4th Edition), The Legal 500, October 2019 (with Anna Kertesz, Veronica Pinotti, Jan Jeram, Daniel J. Rosenthal and Martino Sforza)"Recent Developments in EU Competition Law Enforcement (4) – Merger Control in a Changing World", Kokusai Shoji Homu (International Business Law and Practice), Vol 47, n° 8, p. 949, August 2019 (published in Japanese)
"Recent Developments in EU Competition Law Enforcement (3) – Antitrust in Financial Services", Kokusai Shoji Homu (International Business Law and Practice), Vol 47, n° 3, p. 269, March 2019 (with J-J. Lemonnier and S. Sakellariou-Witt) (published in Japanese)
"Innovation in Merger Control and the Impact on the Pharmaceutical Sector", Pharmaceutical Market Europe (PME), brands2life, November 2018
"Recent Developments in EU Competition Law Enforcement (2) - Cartel", Kokusai Shoji Homu (International Business Law and Practice), Vol 46, n° 9, p. 1221, September 2018 (with P. Pêcheux and S. Sakellariou-Witt) (published in Japanese)
"European Union: Pharmaceuticals", The European, Middle Eastern and African Antitrust Review 2019, GCR, August 2018 (with Jérémie Jourdan, James Killick, Strati Sakellariou-Witt and Pierre Pêcheux)
"Recent Developments in EU Competition Law Enforcement (1) - Main Developments in General Antitrust Law", Kokusai Shoji Homu (International Business Law and Practice), Vol 46, n° 6, p. 755, 2018 (with P. Pêcheux and S. Sakellariou-Witt) (published in Japanese)
"Innovation in merger control", Global Merger Control: Crossing the finish line, May 2018 (with Matteo Giangaspero and Benoît Durand)
"Navigating the shark-infested waters of compliance", inCompliance, September 2016 (with Jacquelyn MacLennan)
"Asking a lot - The information demands in European merger filing are enormous", Competition Law Insight, September 2016 (with Cornelius Börner)
"European merger control: Well-oiled machine or spluttering engine?", Global Merger Control: Charting a Route to Port, November 2015 (with Marika Harjula and James Killick)
"The rules on information exchanges under European competition law", Kokusai Shoji Homu (International Business Law and Practice), Vol 41, n° 5, p. 665, 2013 (with P. Berghe and T. Onoki) (published in Japanese)
"AG Sharpston voices opinion on the standard of judicial review over fines in cartel cases", February 2011 (with Ian Forrester KC and Mark Powell)
"Recent developments in relation to parallel trade in the European pharmaceuticals sector", Biotechnology and Life Sciences Sector: Strategies for Growth, Survival and Patent Protection, Financier Worldwide, January 2010 (with Ian Forrester)
"Who is the Predator (2)? The French Competition Council's GSK Predation Decision is Overruled", Competition Law Insight, 1 July 2008 (with Pascal Berghe)
"French Competition Council vs. GSK France: who is the predator?", Competition Law Insight, June 2007 (with Pascal Berghe)
"Horizontal and Vertical Mergers in the Reformed EC Merger Control", EC Competition Law – A Critical Assessment, edited by Prof. Amato and Prof. Ehlermann, Hart Publishing, May 2007
European Editor (from January to December 2007), Lloyd's Law Report: Pharma
Handelsblatt Best Lawyers 2021-2023, Germany: Antitrust/Competition Law
Recommended for Antitrust law, JUVE, 2016
Mention: Competition: EU and global, Legal 500, EMEA 2016
Leading Lawyer: Life Sciences, Who's Who Legal 2012
Best Business Anticompetitive Practices Article, Antitrust Writing Awards 2012
Institute of Competition Law
