Michael Baron

Michael was responsible for competition policy within the German government for more than 12 years. He gained practical experience of all fundamental issues, not just from a legal but also from an economic and political perspective. He managed important amendments of the German competition law and was head of the German delegation in the EU legislative process helping to amend the EU merger control regulation and the new type of EU rules on vertical restraints of competition.

Since 2007, when he joined Linklaters, Michael has advised partners and the firm team on a broad range of complex cases, especially in cartel law and merger control.

During his career in the German government, Michael worked for five years as legal and economic advisor in the German Parliament (Bundestag) and was deputy head of the German embassy to the OECD in Paris for another five years.

Work highlights

Michael has cooperated with the firm’s team in numerous important mandates. These include advising:

• Novartis in a cartel procedure and helping to reach an agreement on the fine with the Federal Cartel Office

• Linde Engineering on the handling of competition problems esp. in R&D agreements by organising a workshop with the competent company staff

• Silgan, an American metal producer and distributor, on the defence strategy against orders of inspection and delivery of seized documents, with a special focus on the international cooperation of the German and Austrian competition authorities

• the German Ministry of Economics and Technology on the legal defence of the ministerial permission of the Edeka and Tengelmann merger in court procedures before the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf and the Federal Supreme Court of Germany

• Porsche on the handling of disclosure requests concerning an alleged participation in a cartel agreement with other motor car producers

Michael is a member of the cartel law committee of the Association on Intellectual Property and Copyrights (GRUR).

Together with other members of the firm team, Michael has written commentaries in the leading German competition publications, particularly on cartel compliance and horizontal and vertical competition restraints.

Michael is author of numerous publications covering all fields of competition policy, including the EU regulation on vertical competition restraints, EU merger control regulation and the control of excessive prices in the electricity and gas industry.

Michael studied law at the Universities of Cologne, Freiburg (Germany) and Lausanne (Switzerland).

He speaks German, English and French.