Max Seuster

Max Seuster is a competition (antitrust) and EU regulatory lawyer based in Brussels. Max advises on all aspects of EU competition law, merger control and EU regulatory, including state aid and public procurement.

Experience

Representative matters

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.

M&A merger control work

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 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.

Advised international banking group on merger control aspects in a multi-jurisdictional project involving more than 40 jurisdictions worldwide; global coordination of all merger control work.

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.).

Advised global agribusiness group on EC merger control strategy against hostile bid by competitor.

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.

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

Acted for German trader of agricultural goods in German cartel investigation in Germany.

Assisted European industrial player in internal audit and member of EU-wide team filing parallel leniency applications in Europe.

Antitrust Counselling

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.

Complex competition law self-assessments for clients in various industry sectors (including transport, petrochemicals and energy) concerning cooperation with competitors.

Competition law compliance training programmes for clients in various sectors, including function-specific compliance trainings (procurement, sales etc.) and dawn raid trainings.