Vanessa van Weelden

About Vanessa van Weelden

Vanessa is a partner in our Brussels antitrust, competition and trade team. Her practice covers all aspects of EU and German competition law, including antitrust compliance, antitrust investigations, digital regulation, and merger control as well as foreign investment and foreign subsidies screening.

She has significant experience of complex cross-border merger transactions, including investigations before the European Commission and Germany’s Bundeskartellamt and managing the coordination of parallel regulatory proceedings by authorities worldwide. Her practice also covers antitrust advice on strategic partnerships, compliance systems as well as supply and distribution agreements.

Vanessa advises a diverse range of clients, with a particular emphasis on the tech and telecom sectors alongside private equity. She has been advising at the forefront of the EU's Digital Markets Act and has noteworthy experience of abuse of dominance cases in the digital sector.

Vanessa co-heads Freshfields’ EU foreign subsidies working group and as well as advising clients on the implications of the new regulation she has been involved in many of the first notifications to the European Commission.

She speaks English and German.

Recent work

• A global technology company in relation to its complaint to the European Commission against another global technology company in an abuse of dominance case.
• A global technology company on DMA aspects as well as ongoing advice on strategic antitrust and regulatory issues, including strategic partnerships as well as supply and distribution queries.
• Másmóvil on the merger control aspects of the combination of its fixed and mobile telecommunications activities with the Spanish operations of Orange (EU Phase 2 with remedies).
• Deutsche Telekom and Greek telecom group OTE on the merger control aspects of the sale of their Romanian fixed-line telephony division, the former Romtelecom, to Orange (EU Phase 1 with remedies).
• Various TMT operators on the antitrust aspects of a proposed sale of their respective telecommunications towers and related long-term lease agreements.
• Parker-Hannifin on the merger control and national security/foreign investment aspects of its multibillion public bid for Meggitt PLC (EU and UK Phase 1 with remedies).
• Thermo Fisher Scientific on the EU and global merger control aspects of its proposed $11.5bn acquisition of Qiagen.
• Klocke Group and IDT Biologika on the merger control and FDI aspects of its strategic partnership with SK bioscience.
• Evonik on various strategic acquisitions, disposals and cooperations in the chemical sector.
• UPM-Kymmene Corporation and its labelling division UPM Raflatac on the acquisition of AMC AG Advanced Methods of Coating.
• Assa Abloy on the merger control aspects of its acquisition of Skidata.
• Smart on the EU antitrust aspects in connection with its relationship with its parent companies Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd.
• AEA and SCIO on the merger control an FDI aspects of their acquisition of FABMATICS, a manufacturer of automation solutions for clean room facilities.
• Hellman & Friedman and AutoScout24 on the merger control aspects of their sale of Finanzcheck to smava.
• Lindsay Goldberg on the merger control aspects of the sale of PACCOR Group, a leading international player in the packaging industry based in Duesseldorf, Germany, to Faerch Group which is part of the A.P. Moller Group; and on the merger control aspects of the sale of a majority stake in Schur Flexibles Group, headquartered in Austria and a specialized in innovative, premium high-barrier packaging solutions, to B&C Group.
• One Equity Partners on the merger control and FDI aspects of its acquisition of the Fortaco Group, its acquisition of a 29% stake in Cicor Technologies AG from HEB Swiss Investment AG, its sale of Lutech S.p.A. to Apax and its sale of Walki to Oji Holdings Corporation.
• A Chinese company on its acquisition of a building components supplier in relation to a potential ‘call-in’ of a M&A transaction under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation.
• Numerous clients on the implications of the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation, including several of the first notifications to the European Commission.