Malgorzata Szwaj

Małgorzata is a Polish qualified lawyer (Polish: radca prawny), partner and head of the Warsaw antitrust and foreign investment group in Poland and the CEE region. She has 20+ experience in advising on Polish and European competition law, including on merger control, restrictive agreements, cartels, abuses of dominant position and state aid. She regularly represents clients before the Polish Competition Authority, Polish competition courts and the European Commission. She advises on the largest and most significant merger control proceedings involving companies active in Poland. The particular sectors in which Małgorzata excels include telecommunications, media, infrastructure, retail, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and energy.

Małgorzata is a recognised leader in competition law by both Polish and foreign law firm directories including Chambers Europe, Legal 500 EMEA, Polityka Insight, Rzeczpospolita as well as the Global Competition Review’s GCR 100 (in the “Elite” category for Poland, the review’s highest designation). She has published several articles on European and Polish competition law and is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences on these topics. She is a board member of the Polish Competition Law Association. Outside of client work, Małgorzata is a Diversity and Inclusion partner, leading the networking initiative for female clients of the Warsaw office. She engages in initiatives which aim raising awareness among women about their capabilities and strengths.

Work highlights

Highlights of matters on which Małgorzata has led include advising:

• Chariot Top Group BV, a company co-managed by Griffin Real Estate, on merger control aspects of its €1bn acquisition of a retail portfolio in Poland including notification to the European Commission

• Scripps Networks Interactive on the merger control and media regulatory proceedings in Europe in conjunction with its sale to Discovery Communications

• an international producers of wood based products, in the cartel proceedings conducted by the Polish Competition Authority and in subsequent appeal to the Court for the Protection of Competition and Consumers

• a leading chemical company on antitrust proceedings initiated by a dawn raid conducted by the European Commission due to the suspicion of price fixing arrangement

• Orange Polska in relation to the Polish competition authority’s investigation into alleged abuse of the collective dominant position on the market for mobile telecommunication services

• American multinational information technology corporation before the Polish Competition Authority in a proceedings concerning bid-rigging allegations

• Mastercard in a dispute with the Polish competition authority before the competition courts in relation the authority’s decision against a number of banks over alleged irregularities in the process of setting interchange fee for payment card settlement

• a leading Polish retail distributor of works of culture in proceedings conducted by the Polish Competition Authority in relation to the suspected participation in restrictive agreements, including an exchange of information

• Johnson & Johnson in proceedings initiated by the Polish competition authorities in relation to alleged price fixing and market sharing agreements