With more than 20 years of experience, Christian advises clients on matters ranging from strategic planning to closing in mergers, joint ventures, restructurings, and public takeovers, and on competition compliance issues in distribution systems and other commercial dealings in Europe (cooperation agreements, licensing, and sales and marketing), and defends clients in cartel and abuse of dominance investigations, state aid cases, and regulatory matters.

Christian has represented international and national clients before the European Commission and the German and Austrian competition authorities in a number of industrial sectors, including energy, transport (particularly shipping), automotive, consumer goods and electronics, retail, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, natural resources, chemicals, and petrochemicals. On the regulatory side, Christian’s main focus is on questions related to the Third Energy Package and its implementation, as well as other legislation related to the Internal Energy Market, including public procurement rules.

Christian is recommended by the leading legal directories (The Legal 500, Chambers, JUVE), and praised by clients for his “outstanding legal know-how” (The Legal 500, 2018) and “pragmatism and commercial approach” (Chambers and Partners, 2010). Recognising Christian as a Foreign expert for Germany, Chambers 2021 comments that Christian is a “strong choice for German clients in competition matters, advising on merger clearance mandates and anti-competitive behaviour cases”.

Christian regularly authors publications on competition law and is a frequent speaker at conferences on a wide range of competition law and regulatory topics, particularly in the energy sector. He is a member of the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht.

Christian is admitted as a lawyer in Austria and is registered with the Bar Associations in Frankfurt and Brussels. A native German speaker, he is fluent in English and has a good knowledge of French, Italian, and Spanish.