Dr. Ingo Klauß

Ingo represents and advises clients in merger control, cartel and abuse of dominance proceedings before the European Commission, the Bundeskartellamt (the Federal Cartel Office) and courts, and he advises clients in foreign investment proceedings as well as on competition law compliance matters.

He has particular experience in the financial services, pharmaceuticals, network industries, IT/software, consumer goods, chemical and petrochemical industries, as well as in the private equity business.

Ingo has been awarded with the Antitrust Rising Star of the Year 2024 by Legal500 and is listed in Who’s Who Legal as Future Leader in Competition where a client described him as “one of the best competition law experts I have ever met”.

He’s also ranked as “Best Lawyer” for Antitrust and Competition Law by Handelsblatt 2024.

Work highlights

Ingo has advised and represented clients in many major competition cases. These include:

• Bayer: advising on the US$7,6bn sale of its animal health business to Elanco, the acquisition of the biotech company KaNDy Therapeutics Ltd. and the carve-out of Covestro.
• Nestlé: advising on the acquisition of Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. by way of a public takeover offer and the acquisition of a shareholding in veterinary services provider IVC Group.
• Asklepios: advising on the takeover offer for Rhön Klinikum.
• LetterOne: advising on acquisitions in the oil and gas business, in particular RWE DEA and the US2$1bn combination of DEA with Wintershall.

• E.ON: advising on the far-reaching asset swap with RWE, the sale of its 46.6% stake in Uniper to Fortum and one of the few “hostile” takeover bids in Germany.

• Deutsche Börse: advising on several transactions, including the proposed merger with London Stock Exchange, the proposed merger with New York Stock Exchange, the launch of FundsDLT, a blockchain-based technology platform for the investment fund industry, the expansion of the participation in Tradegate AG Wertpapierhandelsbank and the acquisition of electronic FX trading platform 360T.

• Alcon, Bayer, BayWa, INEOS, Deutsche Börse, SC Johnson and Novartis: advising on competition law compliance in distribution cases.

Ingo started working as a fully qualified lawyer in 2003. Since 2005 he works for Linklaters. In 2008, Ingo was seconded to the Linklaters office in London. 

Ingo is a member of Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht, an association of German-speaking competition lawyers that aims to advance competition law thinking and practice.

Ingo teaches “European Competition Law” at the Institute for Law and Finance of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. He is an active member of Mentor, an organisation that helps children with their reading.

Ingo studied law at the Universities of Osnabrück (Germany) and Leiden (The Netherlands), as well as working as a trainee/stagiaire at the Federal Cartel Office and at the European Commission. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Osnabrück.

Ingo speaks German, English and Dutch.

Ingo regularly contributes articles and commentaries to specialised legal journals, including European Competition Law Review (ECLR), and comments in the German media. He also speaks regularly at conferences and seminars dealing with various competition law topics.

He wrote: ”Die Aufsicht über ein Gemeinsames Wettbewerbsgebiet - Grundlagen, Entwicklungslinien und Perspektiven der behördlichen Zusammenarbeit bei der Aufsicht über grenzüberschreitend wirkende Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen“ (Controlling a Common Competition Area - foundations, development and perspectives of the co-operation between competition authorities with regard to the control of restraints of competition with cross-border effect), Baden-Baden 2008.

Has spoken at conferences and seminars dealing with various law topics and has published the following book:

• ”Die Aufsicht über ein Gemeinsames Wettbewerbsgebiet - Grundlagen, Entwicklungslinien und Perspektiven der behördlichen Zusammenarbeit bei der Aufsicht über grenzüberschreitend wirkende Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen“ (Controlling a Common Competition Area - foundations, development and perspectives of the co-operation between competition authorities with regard to the control of restraints of competition with cross-border effect), Baden-Baden 2008, dissertation.
• Publications in legal journals, (e.g. GWR, GRUR Prax, NJW, EuZW and Der Betrieb)
• Regular monthly reports on German Competition Law issues in European Competition Law Review (ECLR). 
  Articles and commentaries in newspapers and magazines (Handelsblatt, Börsenzeitung, etc.).