Dr. Tilman Kuhn
Biography
Overview
Tilman is considered one of the leading antitrust and FDI (foreign direct investment) lawyers in Germany. His international experience spans across a multitude of jurisdictions focusing on merger control and FDI reviews, cartel matters, vertical conduct investigations, dominance matters and civil and appellate litigation for clients across key industries, e.g., oil & gas/chemicals, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, automotive and tech. He is also the head of White & Case's global Consumer & Retail Industry Group.
He has a significant track record on handling merger control proceedings successfully before the German Federal Cartel Office, the European Commission and a number of other international agencies, including, e.g. Metso's landmark "merger" with Outotec, Synthos/Trinseo, The Dow Chemical Company's US$130 billion merger of equals with DuPont*, The Dow Chemical Company/Rohm & Haas*, Henkel/Adhesives & Electronics Business (National Starch)*, Airbus/Bombardier*, and many others.
His creative approach and deep sector knowledge across many industries makes him a sought-after advisor, also for questions related to FDI. Tilman routinely navigate clients through the evolving and increasingly challenging regulatory landscapes starting with the preparation and implementation of a foreign investment review strategy to obtain a timely approval of transactions consistent with deal objectives. He has handled several cases that involved Phase II reviews and mitigation agreements or measures, such as in case of the attempted public takeover of Siltronic by its rival Global Wafers.
Clients also benefit from his experience in cartel matters (including follow-on damages litigation) and other behavioral investigations. One of his recent successes in cartel matters was the representation of Autoliv in an automotive components cartel investigation by the European Commission and other authorities as well as customer damage claims.
Prior to joining White & Case, Tilman worked in the Cologne and Brussels offices for a renowned US law firm.
He is a prolific author on antitrust law and is an active member of Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht.
Tilman "advises strategically and creatively" states a client, another says "excellent, client-oriented, pragmatic, top lawyer", and a competitor highlights, that he is a "very good and dedicated antitrust lawyer with a lot of experience especially in large merger control proceedings" (JUVE 2019/2020). Who's Who Legal described him "dedicated, easy to work with and a talented thinker" (Who's Who Legal, Future Leaders 2017) and a Thought Leader (Who's Who Legal, 2024).
Experience
Selected merger control experience:
- Advised Georg Fischer AG on its public takeover of rival Uponor.
- Advised Synthos on the US$449.4 million acquisition of Trinseo's synthetic rubber business.
- Advised Metso Corporation on the combination of Metso Minerals and Outotec Oyj under the name Metso Outotec.
- Advised The Dow Chemical Company in various matters, including its $130 billion merger of equals with DuPont.*
- Advised Abbott on its acquisition of Solvay's pharmaceutical and diagnostics business.*
- Advised Henkel on its acquisition of ICI's Adhesives & Electronics Business (National Starch).*
- Advised Airbus on its acquisition of a majority stake in Bombadiers C-series program.
- Advised Prax Group on its acquisition of OIL! Tankstellen GmbH.
Selected FDI experience:
- Advised GlobalWafers on antitrust/merger control and foreign direct investment control aspects in relation to of its attempted public takeover of its rival Siltronic AG.
- Advised Jenoptik AG on merger control and FDI aspects regarding its sale of its defense/mechatronics business Vincorion.
- Advised a number of energy and healthcare, tech and defense clients in FDI analyses and filings.
- Advised a US company in in-depth proceedings, resolved with a toughly negotiated mitigation agreement, in the area of lawful telecommunications interception for law enforcement agencies.
- Advised several PRC-based SOEs on global FDI reviews.
- Advised EADS (now Airbus) on antitrust and FDI aspects of its joint (with ThyssenKrupp) acquisition of Atlas Elektronik.*
Selected behavioral/litigation experience:
- Achieved the first ever annulment of a dawn raid search warrant of the German competition authority in an ongoing cartel investigation.
- Advised MediamarktSaturn on a range of issues and projects, especially regarding the foundation of the European Retail Alliance with FNAC Darty.
- Advised Autoliv in an automotive components cartel investigation by the European Commission and other authorities as well as customer damage claims.
- Advised an electronics retailer in the EC's online and RPM investigations.*
- Advised Axel Springer/Pro7Sat1 on the application for annulment of Federal Cartel Office merger prohibition (Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf; Bundesgerichtshof).*
- Advised and represented Lundbeck before the European Commission, as well as before the General Court and ECJ in its appeal against the Commission's decision fining Lundbeck for concluding reverse payment settlement agreements.*
*Experience prior to joining White & Case
Moderator, "Charting a Digital Course: The Future of Consumer & Retail in the Global Arena", World in Transition webinar on 28 November 2023
"EU Merger Control 2023", Informa Connect conference, Panel on "non-horizontal theories of harm" on 28 September 2023
"Der Übernahmemarkt in turbulenten Zeiten", at DAI conference on May 23, 2023
Chair, "EU Merger Control", Informa Connect conference on September 28, 2022
"Mergers in The New Normal: What Populist Antitrust Reform Portends for Mergers" in collaboration with Mondaq on November 3, 2021
"Current Trends on Information and Data Gathering During US and EC Merger Investigations", IBRAC, August 10, 2021
Chair, 2nd European Forum on FDI Reviews & CFIUS, C5, May 19-20, 2021
"Regulatory Update – Europe's New Approach to Digital Markets", IBRAC Digital Markets Committee, February 22, 2021
Panellist, "Increased FDI Scrutiny in the EU: What does this mean in Practice?", webinar with Concurrences on February 2, 2021
"25. Annual International Seminar on Competition Law", at the IBRAC conference in Brazil, Panel on "killer acquisitions" on November 6, 2019
"Recent Cases, Influential European Trends & Ethics" at the Antitrust TX conference in Houston on September 24, 2019
"Recent Developments in Cartels including Algorithmic Cartels" at the "Competition Law Challenges in the Motor Vehicle Sector" conference in Brussels, 2019
"No-poach agreements – Closing the enforcement gap", Concurrences Antitrust Publications & Events, November 2023, (co-author, with Kathryn Mims, Strati Sakellariou-Witt, Jaclyn Phillips)
"Is Planet Merger Control becoming uninhabitable? - Observations on the increasingly shaky statics of international merger control", EU Law Live, October 2023
"A new sense of unease: the rise of no-poach and wage-fixing concerns under EU Competition Law", CPI Antitrust Chronicle May 2022, May 2022, (co-author, with Strati Sakellariou-Witt and Cristina Caroppo)
"No-poach agreements on the European Commission dawn raid radar", Kluwer Competition Law Blog, November 2021, (co-author, with Strati Sakellariou-Witt, J. Mark Gidley, Kathryn Jordan Mims, George L. Paul, Mark Powell, Cristina Caroppo, Peter Citron)
"Proposed New EU Competition Rules for Distribution Agreements – A Rebalancing for the Digital Age", CPI Antitrust Chronicle, August 2021, (co-author, with James Killick and Peter Citron)
"New Horizontal Guidelines and Block Exemptions – Four Chances for Improved Guidance", European Competition Law Review, March 2021, (co-author, with Mathis Rust)
"Sustainability in Brazilian and EU Antitrust Enforcement – Where Do We Stand?", Competition Policy International (CPI), February 2021, (co-author with Vinicius Marques de Carvalho)
"Sustainability Defense for Competitor Collaborations", pp. 5-15, Journal for Competition Law & Policy Debate (CLPD), December 2020, (co-author, with Laura Arnolds)
"Sustainability in Merger Control – Time to Broaden the Discussion", European Competition Law Review, October 2020, (co-author, with Cristina Caroppo)
"The New Transatlantic Attack on High Prices: Price Gouging", CPI Antitrust Chronicle, September 2020, (co-author, with Kathryn J. Mims and Lily Kim)
"The 16th Anniversary of the SIEC Test under the EU Merger Regulation – Where Do We Stand?", Social Science Research Network (SSRN), July 2020 (republication of "The 15th Anniversary of the SIEC Test under the EU Merger Regulation – Where Do We Stand? Parts 1 and 2", Journal for Competition Law, Zeitschrift für Wettbewerbsrecht (ZWeR), 2020, 1 et seq., 153 et seq.
"The More Economic Judicature: How the General Court has Recalibrated the Merger Gauge", Competition Policy International (CPI), June 2020, (co-author, with Prof. Dr. Stefan Thomas)
"Doing Deals in Europe", pp.1-9, Journal for American Bar Association – Antitrust Law Section, June 2020, (co-author, with Marc Israel)
"Innovative Collaborations Require Antitrust Flexibility", Law360: Expert Analysis, December 2019
"Between Coty, Guess and the new V-BER – Where do we Stand on E-Commerce Restrictions", Issue 8, pp. 376-382, European Competition Law Review May 2019, (co-author, with Mathis Rust)
"Transatlantic Convergence in Merger Control? – Time for EU Procedural and Institutional Reform", Global Competition Review (GCR), June 2019
"Innocent Until Proven Guilty – Five Things You Need to Know About Killer Acquisitions", Knect365.com, May 2019, (co-author, with Jacquelyn MacLennan and Thilo Wienke)
"5 Things You Need To Know About The Debate: Whether "Common Ownership" Of Competitors By Institutional Investors Raises Antitrust Concerns", Knect365.com, March 2019, (co-author, with Cristina Caroppo)
Interview, Börsen-Zeitung: Parallele Minderheitsbeteiligungen im Fokus der Kartellbehörden (Parallel minority shareholdings in the focus of antitrust authorities), March 2019
"EC Focus on Internal Documents: Time to Rethink the Architecture of the EU Merge Control Process?", White & Case Newsletter, February 2019
"Implications of the CJEU's Coty judgment for vertical online restrictions", Competition Law & Policy Debate, June 2018, Volume 4, Issue 2, (co-author, with Thomas Graf)
"Lessons Learned from Merger Control of Minority Shareholdings in Germany", Revue Lamy de la Concurrence, 2014 (co-author, with A. End)
Commentary on Section 41 and 42 of the German Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB). Commentary on Articles 3 (forthcoming), 6, 10, 25 and 26 EUMR, Frankfurter Kommentar
"Germany", The Dominance and Monopolies Review, Law Business Research, 2014-2018 (Chapter 10), (co-author, with Stephan Barthelmess)
"Der Erwerb wettbewerblich erheblichen Einflusses in der Deutschen Zusammenschlusskontrolle – Kein Modell für Europa", March 2011
"The acquisition of significant competitive influence in German merger control - No model for Europe", Journal of Competition Law, ZWeR, , pp. 258 et seq., March, 2011
"Preishöhenmissbrauch (excessive pricing) im deutschen und europäischen kartellrecht", June 2006
Commentator in Frankfurter Kommentar on Articles 3, 6, 10, 25, 26 EUMR and §§ 39, 41, 42 GWB
Thought Leader in Competition
Who's Who Legal Germany, 2024
Ranked in Competition/European Law, Germany
Chambers Global, 2021-2023
Next Generation Partner
Legal 500 Germany, Antitrust 2021-2023
Global Leader in Competition
Who's Who Legal 2023
"He is very reliable, pragmatic and really tries to give you a clear answer and is willing to take risks."
Chambers Global, Competition/European Law, 2023
"Tilman Kuhn is characterized by a high level of customer orientation, pragmatism and result orientation; does not give up standing up for the interests of the customer, even in lengthy proceedings."
Legal 500 Germany, Antitrust 2023
Global Leader & National Leader in Competition
Who's Who Legal Germany, 2022
"Best Lawyer" for Competition/Antitrust Law
Handelsblatt 2022
Leading Lawyer under 50: Antitrust
JUVE 2023/2024
Recommended Lawyer for FDI
Legal500 FDI
