Image of Anne Wachsmann

Anne Wachsmann

Antitrust & Foreign Investment Partner, Paris

“I advise on all dimensions of competition law, offering clients in-depth knowledge, extensive experience and well developed relationships with regulators to ensure resolution of complex and business-critical competition matters. I am a skilled negotiator and focus on achieving the best results for clients.”

Overview

Professional experience

Education and qualifications

Published works

Overview

Anne is widely acknowledged for her leading expertise in competition law. She advises on cartels, abuse of dominant position, vertical restraints and merger control, from the administrative investigation stage to the procedure before domestic and EU jurisdictions, as well as antitrust follow-on actions.
 
Anne’s experience spans many sectors, notably the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. Anne co-leads the firm’s consumer sector. She is a member of the Corporate Responsibility Commitee.
 
Earlier in her career, Anne was based in Brussels, where she gained significant insight into the operation of the European Commission and developed extensive contacts with competition regulators.
 
Work highlights

Anne has been involved in several landmark French cartel decisions as well as the EU airfreight case. Other cases including advising:

  • Arcelor on strategic and regulatory competition matters in the steel distribution case.
  • Citer on competition issues in the car rental sector, addressing strategic and regulatory considerations across multiple jurisdictions.
  • Apple in its appeal before the General Court against the European Commission’s decision of 4 March 2024 in the Spotify case. The decision imposed a €1.8 billion fine for anti-competitive practices related to App Store policies.
  • Intermarché in several acquisitions of nearly 500 retail outlets from the Casino group and previously of 90 Carrefour shops in Belgium.
  • Peugeot Citroën Group on European and worldwide competition aspects of its merger with Fiat Chrysler leading to the creation of Stellantis and previously the acquisition of Opel.
  • OPMobility (formerly Plastic Omnium) for various acquisition including AMLS in the lightning automotive sector.
  • Verallia as part of the public offer project by the Brazilian BWGI.
  • LG Electronics in an investigation by the French Competition Authority related to the small appliances antitrust case.
  • Tarkett on the French Competition Authority’s cartel investigation leading to the resilient flooring decision.
  • Sanofi on its worldwide asset swap with Boehringer Ingelheim encompassing worldwide activities.
  • Gefco on the French Competition Authority’s investigation leading to the delivery service services decision.
  • Beiersdorf on the body care sector investigation, which led to global fines of approximately €1bn.
  • Air France-KLM in the international air freight cartel case.

and other major international groups on a range of competition issues.

 

Professional experience

Anne has been ranked individually in Band 1 in Chambers for many years, which in 2025 stated: "Anne Wachsmann is a favourite choice of counsel among multinational and local corporates for advice on merger control. She also has impressive experience across the life-cycle of behavioural mandates, representing clients in dawn raids, investigations and follow-on damages claims." She is featured in the Hall of Fame of Legal500 EMEA 2025, which stated that “Anne Wachsmann has become one of, if not the most respected and experienced antitrust lawyers in France.”

At the end of 2023, she was ranked among the Top 20 Lawyers to Follow on LinkedIn by LJA. 

In 2021, she appeared on the prestigious Women in Antitrust list published by Global Competition Review (GCR). 

She was twice named European Competition Lawyer of the Year in 2014 and 2018 at the Euromoney Women in Business Law Awards. Earlier in her career, Anne was listed twice in GCR’s Top 40 Under 40 Antitrust Lawyers.

Anne Wachsmann continues to share her expertise and vision of competition law through various platforms and events. She is a member of the steering committee for the DGCCRF Morning Sessions, co-organising a conference on 4 April 2025 titled “Competition and Innovation in the Health Products Sector.”

Anne is also on the steering committee for the Nasse Seminar, organised by the French Treasury, which brings together lawyers and economists. On 15 January 2025, she gave a talk on the interplay between ecological transition and competition law. She serves as a Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) for the French Competition Authority within the International Competition Network (ICN).

Anne has been a professor at the College of Europe in Bruges (her alma mater), delivering a 25-hour seminar on European merger control since 2017.

She is President of the Linklaters Foundation in France (La Fondation d’entreprise Linklaters), which was launched in 2015—the first foundation launched by a business law firm in France. The foundation focuses on two main areas in line with the firm's values of excellence and creativity: inclusive education, to combat the various forms of exclusion through education, help with job seeking and returning to work, and support for entrepreneurship; and cultural patronage, by helping institutions fund major exhibitions in the field of contemporary art and curating a photography exhibition on show at our premises.

Since 2020, she has also been the Chair of the Centre Européen d’Actions Artistiques Contemporaines (CEAAC), a Strasbourg-based contemporary art centre.

In July 2024, she was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of the Palais de Tokyo on the recommendation of the French Government.

Education and qualifications

Anne studied law at the University of Strasbourg and holds a diploma of higher European legal studies from the College of Europe in Bruges. She won first prize at the Conférence du Stage of the Strasbourg Bar in 1993.

Published works

Beyond her advisory role, Anne has regularly contributed to the prestigious Concurrences journal from 2005 to 2024 in the column on unilateral practices. She was invited to contribute to the Liber Amicorum in honour of Prof. Laurence Idot, published in 2022.

Anne has authored numerous publications, including:

  • The entry on “Merger Control Policy” in the Dictionary of Competition Law, updated in 2024.
  • A chapter entitled “Minority Interests and Joint Shareholding, a New Age of Enforcement” in Why Competition? Voices from the Antitrust Community and Beyond, published by Concurrences in 2024 (an invitation-only contribution).
  • “Towercast and Article 101 TFEU: Mirage or Reality? Lessons to Learn – The First Case Before the FCA 24 D05 of 2 May 2024,” published in January 2025 in the Journal of European Competition Law & Practice.
  • “Cartel Leniency in France”, Cartel Leniency Global Guide, Thomson Reuters Practical Law, 2017, with Clara Robert-Heidmann
  • “L’intensification de la réparation des dommages issus des pratiques anticoncurrentielles” (on the impact of EU and French antitrust transaction procédures on follow-on civil damages litigation), Institut de Recherche Juridique de la Sorbonne - André Tunc edition, 2016
  • “The New Settlement Procedure under French Law”, In-house Counsel World Summit magazine, July 2016