Profile details
About Vanessa van Weelden
Vanessa is a principal associate 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 on DMA aspects as well as ongoing advice on strategic antitrust and regulatory issues, including on 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.
- Parker-Hannifin on the merger control and national security/foreign investment aspects of its multibillion public bid for Meggitt PLC.
- Thermo Fisher Scientific on the EU and global merger control aspects of its proposed $11.5bn acquisition of Qiagen.
- Deutsche Telekom and Greek telecom group OTE on the antitrust aspects of the sale of their Romanian fixed-line telephony division, the former Romtelecom, to Orange.
- Various TMT operators on the antitrust aspects of a proposed sale of their respective telecommunications towers and related long-term lease agreements.
- 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.
- Evonik on various strategic cooperations in the chemical sector.
- A number of private equity clients and pension funds on the merger control, competition, foreign investment and foreign subsidies aspects of various acquisitions.
Qualifications
Education
- University of Freiburg, Germany
- University of Heidelberg, Germany
- China University of Political Science and Law Beijing, China
Professional qualifications
- Legal traineeship (Referendariat) at Munich Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht), including traineeship at the European Commission, DG Competition
- Rechtsanwältin admitted to the Munich Bar
- Admitted to the Brussels Bar (E-list)
Additional responsibilities
- Co-head of the Regionalgruppe Brüssel of the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht
- Guest lecturer at the CAS International Competition Law, Regulatory and Compliance executive education program at the ZHAW School of Management and Law