Bertrand Guerin
About
Bertrand is a counsel in our antitrust, competition and trade group. He has been based in our Berlin, Germany and Silicon Valley, California offices. A dual-qualified competition lawyer (France and Germany) and Registered Foreign Legal Consultant with the State Bar of California, he advises on EU, German, French and multi-jurisdictional merger control and antitrust.
Bertrand has been recognised in many client and peer rankings, including as one of the 21 'Thought Leaders' worldwide in the category Future Leaders/Non Partners (Lexology Competition, 2025), a 'Future Leader' (Who's Who Legal: Competition/Global Competition Review, 2017-2025), and one of the 'Best Lawyers' in competition (German business daily newspaper Handelsblatt, 2023-2024).
He specialises in merger control, abuse-of-dominance and distribution strategies under European, German and French competition law. He also advises on the EU's Digital Markets Act and Foreign Subsidies Regulation.
Bertrand is known for his significant experience in the tech, ad tech, media & advertising, new media, e-commerce, retail and pharmaceutical sectors. His clients range from US tech giants to European leaders in their respective fields, for example in media, e-commerce and pharma. Bertrand has been involved in antitrust or regulatory procedures for or involving three of the five largest global technology companies.
Benefitting from unparalleled knowledge of the Hollywood and European media and film landscape, Bertrand also works closely with the Freshfields Technology and Media sector group leaders on initiatives relating to the industry.
...
Media, Advertising, Technology & Software
- Advising RTL Deutschland on its acquisition of Sky Deutschland, a transformative deal in European media, cleared unconditionally by the European Commission.
- Advising CME Central Media Enterprises (PPF-owned; formerly Time Warner-owned), the owner of the leading television broadcasters in Central and Eastern Europe including TV Nova (Czech Republic), PRO TV (Romania) and bTV (Bulgaria)
- Advising Meta Platforms (Facebook) on the French competition authority's investigation related to the advertising technology sector, closed without any finding of infringement via negotiated commitments
- Advising Apple on selected aspects the EU's Digital Markets Act
- Advising a confidential client in relation to the EU's Google Shopping procedure
- Advising SoftwareOne on its €1.4 billion merger with Crayon
- Advising Axel Springer on its acquisition of SeLoger.com
- Advising the founding members of the European newspaper alliance LENA: Die Welt (Axel Springer) (Germany), El País (Spain), La Repubblica (Italy), Le Figaro (France), Le Soir (Belgium), Tages-Anzeiger (Switzerland) and Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland).
- Advising Cinven/Host Europe Group on numerous acquisitions in the Internet hosting sector as well as the €1.69bn sale of Host Europe Group to GoDaddy
- Advising Atlassian on its acquisition of The Browser Company
- Advising sennder and LKW Walter on the creation of TruckerPoints
Retail, E-Commerce, Luxury & Consumer Goods
- Advising two leading premium luxury goods brands on all merger control procedures for their global merger
- Advising Zalando on various e-commerce, distribution and platform topics
- Advising LVMH on its acquisition of luxury watchmaker Hublot
- Advising LVMH on its acquisition of a stake in Stella McCartney
- Advising Mars on selected procedures before the German competition authority
- Advising Aryzta, the international bakery group, on its acquisition of Klemme
- Advising Metro on a wholesale/retail alliance with third parties
Pharmaceuticals, Biotech, Medical Devices, Insurance & Insurtech
- Advising Advent on its €1.9bn acquisition of Zentiva, the previous European generics business of Sanofi
- Advising Zentiva on Zentiva’s acquisition of the entire CEE business of Alvogen and virtually all material subsequent acquisitions by Zentiva
- Advising Advent and Zentiva on the sale of Zentiva to GTCR
- Advising Boehringer Ingelheim on its €22.8bn swap deal with Sanofi relating to the companies' respective consumer healthcare and animal health businesses
- Advising Biotronik on the sale of its Vascular Intervention business to Teleflex
- Advising Cinven and its portfolio company Viridium group on its acquisitions of the German life insurance activities of Generali Lebensversicherung (4 million policies) and life insurance portfolios of Zurich
- Advising Fidelidade in the acquisition of a majority stake in fellow insurance company Prosperity
- Advising Verisk in the acquisition of Actineo
Industrials & Manufacturing
- Advising Montana Tech Components and Aluflexpack on the acquisition of the latter by Constantia Flexibles
- Advising Maersk on its approx. €1bn attempted sale of Maersk Container Industry to China International Marine Containers Ltd., which was subject to in-depth review by the German competition authority and the US Department of Justice
- Advising Daimler on its acquisition of Tognum by Engine Holding, a joint venture of Daimler and Rolls-Royce, by way of a public tender offer
- Advising ABB on various procedures or acquisitions
- Advising ATS Automation Tooling Systems on several acquisitions
- Advising HIG Capital on the acquisition of Covestro’s polyurethan business
- Advising Groupe Arnault in the acquisition of a stake in Paprec
- Advising FMC in the acquisition of the alginates business of International Specialty Products
- Advising Mercuria in a transaction with ChemChina
Bertrand Guerin
Potsdamer Platz 1
855 Main Street