Aaron is a Partner in our Brussels Antitrust, Competition and Trade practice. He has over a decade of experience advising an array of clients on all areas of EU, UK and international competition law, with particular expertise in complex merger control proceedings and digital markets regulation.
Aaron specialises in advising clients on the antitrust and regulatory aspects of their global transactions and is accomplished at managing multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance strategies, drawing on extensive experience of cross-border transactions. He has advised clients on several complex Phase I and Phase II merger control filings requiring remedies to the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority and other international competition authorities.
Aaron is a leading practitioner in digital markets regulation, with extensive experience advising major tech companies on the impact of and ongoing compliance with emerging digital regulatory regimes, including in particular the EU’s Digital Markets Act and the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. He is adept at helping clients to navigate the intersection between digital markets regulation, antitrust, and other regulatory regimes.
Aaron’s practice covers a variety of sectors, with a strong focus on tech, media and telecoms, as well as regularly advising private capital and sovereign wealth clients and industrial clients undergoing transformation of their businesses.
Aaron’s experience includes advising:
- A gatekeeper on all aspects related to the EU Digital Markets Act, including gatekeeper designation, the specification of core platform services and ongoing compliance.
- Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings on the EU merger control aspects of its proposed acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which was subject to an in-depth Phase II review by the European Commission.
- Saint-Gobain on the global merger control strategy for its $2.3bn all cash acquisition of GCP Applied Technologies, including the unconditional Phase I merger control clearances in Europe and the UK.
- AstraZeneca on the EU and UK merger control aspects of its $39bn acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
- Maersk on the merger control clearances of its acquisition of Hamburg Süd in over 20 jurisdictions including the EU, China and South Korea.
- Maersk on the unconditional merger control clearances of its acquisition of Senator International.
- Cinven on the merger control aspects of its sale of Kurt Geiger to Steve Madden.
- Holcim on the merger control aspects of its $43bn merger of equals with Lafarge, and the subsequent divestment of businesses in 15 countries.
- CK Hutchison on the €21.8bn combination of its Italian mobile business with Wind Italy to create the largest mobile operator in Italy, including the negotiation of a complex remedy package.
- Telenet on the competition law aspects of its agreement with Fluvius to combine their fixed network assets to create a FTTH network of the future in Flanders.
- A major Hollywood studio the European Commission’s antitrust investigation into cross-border access to pay-TV.
- The administrators of Monarch Airlines on the EU and UK aviation regulation aspects of their successful sale of Monarch’s airport slots, including before the UK Civil Aviation Authority and in proceedings in the High Court of England & Wales, which were successfully overturned in the landmark judgment of the Court of Appeal.
- The administrator of Flybe on the antitrust and airline regulation aspects of the administration, including before the Civil Aviation Authority.
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