Prof. Dr. Daniela Seeliger

Daniela is widely regarded as one of the leading competition lawyers in Germany. She has 20+ experience advising on all aspects of European and German competition law, including cartel proceedings, merger control and abuse of dominance cases. She has extensive expertise in the coordination of multijurisdictional filings, dawn raids and crisis management as well as the development and implementation of compliance programs. She regularly represents clients in cartel proceedings before the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) as well as before German and European courts.

Daniela co-heads the firm’s global chemicals sector group and further particular sectors in which she excels include automotive, energy & utilities, healthcare, IT and telecommunications.

Work highlights

Daniela has advised on many high-profile cases both in the antitrust and merger control spheres. Cases and clients which can be disclosed include representing/advising:

• KME on the acquisition of Mansfelder Kupfer und Messing GmbH
• Energizer on the acquisition of the global battery and portable lighting business from Spectrum Brands
• Germany’s Minister of Finance arising out of the proposed acquisition by Edeka, Germany’s largest supermarket group, of the grocery chain, Kaiser’s, owned by the retail group Tengelmann
• Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile communications companies, on its acquisition of Kabel Deutschland, Germany’s leading cable provider
• McKesson, the largest U.S. drug distributor, on its US$8.6bn acquisition of Celesio, a German healthcare and pharmaceutical company
• Lastminute and Ströer in sector inquiries of the Federal Cartel Office in relation to online comparison portals and online advertising
• numerous companies in cartel proceedings and in relation to damage claims, inter alia regarding the “sausage cartel”, “drug cartel”, a buildingtechnology company before the Federal Cartel Office as well as a packaging company before the European Commission
• Beiersdorf/tesa on antitrust compliance and the development and global implementation of a compliance programme

Daniela is ranked among the best 37 competition lawyers in Germany and is a national government expert appointed by Bundeskartellamt, advising on proposed legislation and the impact on business of laws and regulations.

She is board member of the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht (Antitrust Lawyers Association), member of the Commission “Competition Law 4.0” of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology as well as member of the executive education committee of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

In 2015, Daniela was awarded the title of professor by the Martin Luther University in Halle in recognition of her long-standing teaching engagement in European and German competition law. She is a lecturer of the German Lawyers’ Academy course for International Business Law.

She assisted with compiling the United Nations’ Guide for General Counsel on Corporate Sustainability, an initiative led by Tom Shropshire.

Daniela publishes widely on competition law and regularly presents on different topics including cartel investigations, compliance and risk management and developments and trends. Her publications include:

• Kartellrecht im M&A-Prozess (Competition law in M&A process) (with Dorothee de Crozals), in: Schalast/Raettig (ed.): Grundlagen des M&A-Geschäftes: Strategie, Recht, Steuern, p. 431 ff., Wiesbaden, 2019
• Nachlese zur Ministererlaubnis EDEKA/Tengelmann (EDEKA/Tengelmann retrospective), in: Kokott/Pohlmann/Polley (ed.): Festschrift für Dirk Schroeder: Europäisches, deutsches und internationales Kartellrecht, p. 777 ff., Cologne, 2018
• Rechtsentwicklungen im Wettbewerbs- und Kartellrecht 2018 (Legal developments in competition and antitrust law 2018) (with Ingo Klauß), in: Der Betrieb 2018, Supplement 4, 39
• Germany: Law & Practice, p. 3 ff., in: Chambers Global Practice Guides: Merger Control 2019
• Kartellrechts-Compliance (Competition Law Compliance) (with Antje Heinen and Oliver Mross), in: Schulz (ed.): Compliance-Management im Unternehmen: Strategie und praktische Umsetzung, 1st edition, p. 555 ff., Frankfurt/Main, 2017
• Kapitel 3, § 11: Die Beurteilung der verschiedenen Arten von Vertriebsverträgen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Vertikal-GVO Nr. 330/2010 und der dazu erlassenen Leitlinien (The assessment of the different types of distribution agreements under the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation No 330/2010 and the vertical guidelines), p. 492 et seq.; § 13: Kopplungsbindungen (Tying), p. 645 et seq:, in: Wiedemann (Ed.): Handbuch des Kartellrechts, 3rd edition, München, 2016

Daniela studied law at the Universities in Bonn and Lausanne and holds a master’s in law from King’s College, London and a doctorate from the University of Cologne.

She speaks German, English, French and Swedish.