Linklaters’ Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group wins three prestigious GCR awards

Linklaters Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group has won three prestigious awards from industry publication Global Competition Review (GCR) recognising its market-leading expertise across antitrust and foreign investment matters.

Linklaters won ‘Matter of the Year’ for its advice to PSA (Peugeot Citroen) on its megadeal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to create Stellantis, one of the world's largest manufacturers with 8.7 million vehicle sales, a turnover of €170 billion and a workforce of more than 400,000 employees. The merger was notified in 22 jurisdictions and triggered a Phase 2 in 5 jurisdictions including the EU. The Linklaters team included partners Anne Wachsmann, Thomas Elkins, Antonia Sherman, and Vivian Cao, alongside Counsel Nicolas Zacharie and managing associates Matthieu Blayney, Sara Gil Garcia, Liliane Gam, Larry Zhou, Violette Grac-Aubert, Pablo Boirin, Anna Bouhassira, Camille Coulon and Heloise Pillard. 

The firm’s role advising an industry association complainant in the Hong Kong Competition Commission Hotel MFN investigation into Expedia, Booking and Trip.com won GCR’s ‘Behavioural Matter of the Year’ Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Linklaters team consisted of Marcus Pollard, head of  Linklaters’ Antitrust & Foreign Investment practice in Hong Kong SAR, and Kathleen Gooi (Hong Kong SAR). The award recognises creative, strategic and innovative work carried out in a non-merger matter before an enforcer in the region.

Marcus Pollard also won global ‘Lawyer of the Year – Under 40’, beating off competition from a talented field of candidates worldwide. Recognised as a rising star in the Asia-Pacific antitrust community, Marcus has been involved in nearly all of the key cases launched by Hong Kong’s fledgling Competition Commission and has steered clients through precedent setting probes and decisions by agencies in emerging competition regimes across the region. He wins the award in recognition of his superior technical skills, practical judgement and excellence in client service which demonstrates that he is among the very best in the field.

Christian Ahlborn, partner of Antitrust & Foreign Investment group at Linklaters, said: “These awards recognise our deep experience and bench strength across our global AFIG offering. At a time when antitrust and foreign investment issues are becoming ever more critical for our clients, we continue to have a robust track record of innovation in dealing effectively with complex global, EU and domestic transactional and behavioural matters.”