Alexander Birnstiel, LLM (College of Europe)
Rechtsanwalt (Lawyer), Partner
Alexander advises German and international clients from a large number of industries (including automotive, chemicals, primary and reinsurance, financial services, generic drugs, real estate, IT, food retailing and production, media, pharmaceuticals, sport and steel) on all questions of German and European antitrust and competition law. He represents clients in cartel, abuse and merger control proceedings (including coordination of multijurisdictional filings) before the German Federal Cartel Office, the European Commission and national and European courts. He also advises clients on antitrust issues associated with digitalisation projects (including setting up and running internet platforms), the interface between antitrust and intellectual property, private enforcement and compliance issues and in dawn raid scenarios. In European State aid law, Alexander can refer to comprehensive experience and work both for the public sector and private clients (State aid beneficiaries and complainants) including in the area of regional State aid, rescue and restructuring aid and hospital financing.
Projects
- Andritz
Advising on merger control in connection with the public takeover of a majority share in German company Schuler, including notifications before the European Commission and the competition authorities of the US, Turkey, Brazil and China - Agricultural wholesaler
Successfully defending the client before the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) in connection with a cartel by wholesalers of crop protection products - Bahlsen
Defending the company in connection with the “confectionery cartel" and averting and asserting cartel damages claims - CMC Commercial Metals Company
Advising CMC in connection with antitrust administrative proceedings and cartel damages claims - Daimler
Providing advice on merger control and competition law with regard to joint ventures and acquisitions (including multijurisdictional filings); general advice regarding competition compliance - Ennoconn Corporation/HonHai
Advising the company on merger control regarding the acquisition of shares in S&T AG and conducting merger control proceedings before the European Commission - H2 Mobility industrial consortium (Air Liquide, Daimler, Linde, OMV, Shell und Total)
Providing the industrial consortium with antitrust, merger control and State aid law advice on the setting-up of a joint venture to establish hydrogen filling station infrastructure in Germany; Providing on-going advice on competition law - HUK-COBURG
Representing the HUK-COBURG insurance group in private enforcement litigation (cartel damages claims) regarding the EU car glass cartel - International mobile phone manufacturer
Advising on the licensing of standard essential patents and in complex FRAND litigation - Japanese bank consortium (five Japanese commercial banks)
Providing merger control advice and notifying the European Commission of a merger - Japanese multinational electronics company
Advising on merger control issues in Brussels - Kaufland
Advising on antitrust and merger control matters in connection with the acquisition of the real.de online marketplace - Kontron
Regularly providing merger control support during takeovers, including filing notifications with the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) and coordinating international filings - Mercedes Benz
Advising the client on antitrust law and type approval in connection with third party claims for access to data generated in cars including successfully defending claims based on unauthorised data access in court - PCC Precision Castparts Corp
Advising on merger control including representation in a phase-2 proceeding before the German Federal Cartel Office - Schwarz Group
Advising food retailer Kaufland on the acquisition of food retailer Real shops and on the acquisition of the internet marketplace real.de - SKW Stahl Metallurgie
Representing SKW AG in the calcium carbide cartel proceedings (EU cartel case involving alleged price and quota agreements) before the European Commission, the European General Court and the European Court of Justice, as well as before national courts (including the German Federal Court of Justice) in civil proceedings - ThyssenKrupp
Advising on the handling of antitrust law compliance issues, the establishment and execution of an amnesty programme and support in an ad hoc antitrust audit not related to any specific events - Westlake/Vinnolit
Representation of US leniency applicant (and its German subsidiary) in DG COMP ethylene purchasing cartel case
Distinctions
- Who's Who Legal
Recognised as “Thought Leaders Germany (Competition)" (on-going since 2018) - GCR Competition Review
Frequently recommended as a leading expert in antitrust law, “Lexology Index – Competition” (2025) - JUVE Handbook
Frequently recommended lawyer for antitrust (on-going since 2014) - Legal 500
Recommended lawyer for antitrust (on-going since 2014) - Best Lawyers / Handelsblatt
Leading expert in antitrust law, Germany (on-going since 2016) - Best Lawyers / Handelsblatt
Leading expert in European Union law, Germany (2023) - Chambers Europe
Leading expert in competition/European law (on-going since 2010) - Chambers Global
Leading expert in competition/European law (on-going since 2016) - IFLR 1000
Leading expert in competition law (2018-2020) - WirtschaftsWoche
Top Lawyer for antitrust and competition (2020) - WirtschaftsWoche
Top Lawyer for compliance (2017) - Handelsblatt
Lawyer of the year in competition law (2018)
My insights
Career
Legal studies at the Universities of Munich and Geneva
Postgraduate studies at the College of Europe, Bruges
Private practice experience in Brussels and London
1998
Joined Noerr
Admitted to the Munich Chamber of Lawyers
Memberships
- International Bar Association (IBA)
- American Bar Association (ABA), Antitrust Section
- Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht
Lectures
- How to defend oneself against cartel allegations in a world of changing cartel enforcement?, Noerr Competition Day 2025, Munich
- Current antitrust enforcement trends and compliance challenges, Noerr Compliance Day 2024, Frankfurt
- Two ARC amendments in one legislative period - political, legal and/or economic necessity?, Noerr Competition Day 2024, Munich
- European Antitrust Enforcement – Reloaded?, Noerr Competition Day 2023, Munich
- New rules for the digital economy: What do the 10th Amendment to the German Act Against Restraints of Competition and the Digital Services Act package mean in practice?, Noerr Digital Day 2021
- Antitrust and class actions: what does the future hold?, IBA Annual Conference 2020
- Diverging Trends in digital antitrust in China, the US and Europe - How can companies best master the challenge?, Noerr Competition Day 2020, Munich
- Managing Multi-jurisdictional Antitrust Investigations, Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Annual Meeting 2019, Phoenix (Arizona)
- Litigation, IBA 23rd Annual Competition Conference 2019, Florence
- Antitrust vs. Regulatory Intervention - How Will Global Markets be Kept Open in an Era of Digitization, AI and Big Data?, Lex Mundi Summit, Amsterdam, May 2019
- Anti-Trust in the Digital Era, European American Chamber of Commerce, New York, May 2019
- Global horizontal enforcement trends – a view from Brazil, Japan, the U.S. and the EU, Noerr Competition Day 2019, Munich
- Digitization and Antitrust: New Antitrust Challenges in Europe and Around the Globe (panel moderator), Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Annual Meeting 2018, Austin (Texas)
- Annual Antitrust Update for Business Lawyers and Antitrust in the Age of the Internet and Big Data: Getting Products to Market, ABA Business Law Section Annual Meeting 2018, Austin (Texas)
- Spooky spokes: Information exchange and collusion through third parties, 1st Annual Conference 2018 of the European Competition Lawyers Association, Lisbon
- Best practices in (international) internal investigations, Noerr Competition Day 2018, Munich
- Current EU Antitrust Enforcement Trends And Their Potential Implications For US Businesses And Their Antitrust Advisors (panel moderator), European American Chamber of Commerce, New York, March 2018
- International online distribution issues, IBA Annual Conference 2017, Sydney
Publications
- Europäisches Beihilfenrecht, Birnstiel/Bungenberg/Heinrich (eds), Nomos Kommentar, 2013
- Dawn Raids - richtiger Umgang mit kartellbehördlichen Durchsuchungen, Birnstiel/Janka/Schubert, DB 2014
- Kartellrecht, in: Bräutigam/Kraul (eds), Rechtshandbuch Internet of Things (IoT), C.H.Beck 2021
- Verschärfte Ermittlungsbefugnisse deutscher Kartellbehörden – Umfassende Auskunftsverlangen und Mitwirkungspflichten bei Durchsuchungen, Birnstiel/Hegener, DB 2021
Well
informed
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