Christian Filippitsch

"Christian Filippitsch has an impressive knowledge of competition law, is very service-oriented and always finds the most effective solution."
Chambers Global, Competition: EU, client

Christian is the managing partner of Reed Smith’s Brussels office, where he focuses his practice on antitrust and competition matters. He advises on all aspects of EU and international competition and merger control law, EU state aid, and public procurement, as well as regulatory law.

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.

Experience

Representative matters

Defending listed EU energy utility in abuse of dominance investigation before the European Commission.

Represented Hellenic Republic before the European Commission in negotiations of commitments concerning the divestment of generation capacity to implement the EC decision in the Lignite case.

Acted for leading European shipping company in German antitrust investigation securing early closure of the case.

Investigations / Litigation

Defending listed EU energy utility in abuse of dominance investigation before the European Commission.

Represented Hellenic Republic before the European Commission in negotiations of commitments concerning the divestment of generation capacity to implement the EC decision in the Lignite case.

Acted for leading European shipping company in German antitrust investigation securing early closure of the case.

Represented Monaghan Mushrooms Group and its German subsidiary Prime Champ in European Court of Justice proceedings (C-686/17) leading to landmark decision on the use of Country of Origin within the European Union.

Represented international Group in European Commission state aid investigation concerning energy trading activities in Romania.

Acted for Austrian construction group in EC state aid complaint against EU member state’s energy certificate granting practice.

Acted for internationally active chemical group Chemson in Heat Stabilizer cartel investigation before the EU Commission.

Represented and successfully defended German producer of household products in cartel investigation before the German Bundeskartellamt.

Represented and successfully defended Japanese manufacturer of electronics in LCD cartel investigation before the European Commission.

Acted for Empresa de Energía de Bogotà (EEB) in legal dispute related to the acquisition of a minority share in Colombia, providing an expert legal opinion on EU merger control law for submission to the Colombian court and presenting the legal opinion before the Columbian Appellate Court end 2017. The Columbian competition authority had based its merger control decision, which was the subject of the dispute on the decisional practice of the European Commission.

M&A merger control work

Advising internationally active chemical group (headquartered in Asia) on global merger control and antitrust aspects of its US$ 800 million acquisition of a crop protection business in South America, including coordinating several merger filings.

Advised globally active energy group (headquartered in Asia) on its acquisition of a portfolio of European LNG assets securing merger clearance before EU Commission.

Advised US-based market-leading clinical cloud solutions company on its US$ 5.8 billion merger with international software company Dassault Systèmes; secured Phase I clearance in Germany.

Advised internationally active European shipping group on all merger control and antitrust aspects of a JV with a leading global car carrier (headquartered in Asia), involving securing clearances before EC and in several other jurisdictions, and the related acquisition of a leading international specialised Ro-Ro cargo freight forwarder.

Advised leading global energy group on all merger control and competition law issues related to its divestment of a controlling stake in a gas JV in Europe; successfully represented client in Phase II merger control investigation before national competition authority in the EU and secured clearance without remedies.

Advised international automotive group Samvardhana Motherson on its acquisition of the US$ 1 billion strong competitor Reydel Automotive; secured merger control clearance before the EC and in several jurisdictions in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Acted for leading European food ingredient producer on its acquisition of a majority stake in a food innovator (meat replacement products); secured EU merger clearance.

Advised Japanese trading house on the acquisition of a controlling stake in a global JV active in the maritime tramp vessel sector involving merger control filings in more than ten jurisdictions globally.

Acted for European leisure airline in a complaint before the EU Commission against the merger of two leading European leisure airline businesses.

Advised US-based technology group on its US$950 million merger with one of its largest competitors and systems and secured Phase I clearance (subject to divestment remedy) before the EU (deal also obtained unconditional clearance in the U.S.).

Antitrust Counselling

Representing internationally active electronics producer (headquartered in Japan) on all distribution and competition issues in Europe.

Advising leading European automotive Tier-1 suppliers on antitrust aspects of its joint ventures in China.

Advised leading US petrochemicals group on EU and international antitrust aspects related to a major international petrochemicals production JV.

Advised European shipping group on antitrust risks and effective compliance structure for its shipping operations and participations in agents and freight forwarders.

Recognitions

Named a Stand-out Lawyer by Thomson Reuters, 2023-2026
Selected through peer review for inclusion in The Best Lawyers™ in Belgium for Competition/Antitrust Law, 2019-2022
Ranked in Chambers Global for Belgium Competition/EU 2020-2025; for Belgium Competition/EU (Foreign Expertise), 2023-2025; and in the Spotlight Table for Germany Competition/European Law: Lawyers Based Abroad in Belgium, 2025