Ianis Girgenson is the Group General Counsel of United Group BV, a telecom and media operator active in eastern Europe. He oversees all legal matters, as well as interactions with national and EU regulatory agencies. Before joining United Group BV, Ianis practiced competition law in London, Brussels and Paris for over 15 years and served for 4 years as an Associate General Counsel at VEON in Amsterdam. He graduated from the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and obtained a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School. Ianis is a member of Paris and New York bars.
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On 19 October 2018, the European Commission approved the acquisition of U.S. company GitHub by Microsoft Corporation. Both parties are active in the supply of software development and operations (“DevOps”) tools. GitHub is a popular hosting platform for software development. Developers can (...)
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On 6 September 2018, the European Commission approved the acquisition of UK company Shazam Entertainment Ltd. (“Shazam”) by U.S. group Apple. Shazam is a global market leader in the supply of music recognition apps for smartphones, tablets and personal computers. Apple is, inter alia, the (...)
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On 10 April 2017, the European Commission approved the acquisition of German container liner shipping company known as Hamburg Süd or HSDG by Danish group Maersk Line A/S (the decision was made publicly available a year later). Maersk is the largest container shipping company in the world (...)
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On 18 January 2018, the European Commission approved the acquisition of Dutch company NXP Semiconductors by U.S. group Qualcomm. Both parties were active in the supply of semiconductors. The Commission concluded that the transaction raised conglomerate concerns due to the parties’ strong (...)
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On 6 January 2016, following an in-depth investigation, the Commission cleared without commitments the acquisition of the Dutch company TNT Express (³cTNT³d) by the US FedEx group. The full version of the clearance decision was published at the end of December 2016. The FedEx/TNT decision (...)
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On 29 June 2015, following an in-depth investigation, the Commission authorised without commitments the acquisition of the US company Dresser-Rand by the German Siemens group. The full version of the clearance decision was published one year later. The parties were both suppliers of (...)
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On 21 December 2015, the Commission approved, subject to commitments, the acquisition of the German company Elster by the US Honeywell Group. The parties were both active in the heating products sector and in the manufacture of gas meters. The transaction led to overlaps in many product (...)
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On 2 December 2015, the Commission authorised the acquisition of the US company Cytec by the Belgian group Solvay. Solvay is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of chemical products. Cytec produced chemicals for the mining industry as well as composite materials and adhesives for the (...)
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On 14 July 2015, the Commission approved the acquisition of the Irish airline Aer Lingus by the IAG Group (combining British Airways, Iberia and Vueling). The clearance decision was adopted after a Phase I review and is subject to commitments. In particular, IAG undertook to divest five pairs (...)
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On 19 May 2015, after an in-depth investigation, the Commission approved the acquisition of the Spanish company Jazztel by the French group Orange. Both parties were active in the provision of fixed internet access services in Spain. The transaction reduced the number of major Internet service (...)
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On 25 July 2014, the Commission decided that the creation by the Lagardère group and the SNCF company of a joint venture to operate points of sale in railway stations did not constitute a concentration as it was not a full-function joint venture. Relay, a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group, (...)
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On 28 May 2014, after an in-depth examination, the Commission cleared the acquisition of the Irish company Telefónica Ireland by the UK company Hutchison 3G UK. This is one of two mergers between mobile operators cleared by the Commission last year (see also Eur. Comm., Dec. 2 July 2014, (...)
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On 14 March 2014, the European Commission has approved the acquisition of the Spanish company Mivisa by the US group Crown Holdings. The parties were both active in the manufacture of cans and the operation reduced the number of major manufacturers present in Europe from three to two. In order (...)
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On 3 December 2013, the Commission cleared a series of transactions between Russian energy giant Gazprom and Wintershall, a subsidiary of the German BASF group. Wintershall is Germany’s largest producer of natural gas and oil. Since 1990, Wintershall has been cooperating with Gazprom to import (...)
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On 11 October 2013, the European Commission authorised the creation of a joint venture between the Belgian bank BNP Paribas Fortis (a subsidiary of BNP Paribas) and the Belgian telecommunications operator Belgacom. The joint venture, Belgian Mobile Wallet, is intended to operate on the Belgian (...)
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On 1 October 2013, the French Competition Authority authorised the transaction by which Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations ("CDC") acquired sole control of the company Transdev Group ("Transdev"). Prior to the transaction, Transdev was jointly controlled by CDC and Veolia Environnement (...)
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On 20 September 2013, the Commission approved the acquisition of Kabel Deutschland (hereinafter ’Kabel’) by Vodafone. Kabel operates cable networks in 13 German regions and is the leading pay-TV operator in Germany. Vodafone is (together with Deutsche Telekom) one of the two market leaders in (...)
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Eur. Comm. 05.08.2013, Dec. Art. 6(1)(b) in conjunction with Art. 6(2), Case COMP/M.6607, US Airways / American Airlines In 2013, the Commission cleared two major transactions involving airlines operating transatlantic flights: the acquisition by Delta Airlines ("Delta") of joint control of (...)
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On 15 April 2013, the Commission cleared the acquisition of UK cable operator Virgin Media by US group Liberty Global. Virgin Media is the second largest pay-TV operator in the UK (behind BSkyB controlled by Newscorp) while Liberty is the largest cable operator in Europe. The operation did not (...)
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On 30 January 2013, following an in-depth investigation, the Commission opposed the acquisition of TNT Express ("TNT") by United Parcel Services ("UPS"). The full version of the prohibition decision was only published in May 2015, more than two years after its adoption. The publication comes (...)
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On 4 July 2012, the European Commission authorised the creation of a joint venture between French Post and Swiss Post (the decision was not published until March 2013). The authorisation was conditional on the sale of Swiss Post’s subsidiary in France. The commitment to divest Swiss Post’s (...)
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On 18 April 2012, the European Commission cleared, subject to commitments, the acquisition of Synthes Inc. by Johnson & Johnson ("J&J"). This decision, published in May 2013, is a major victory for J&J. The deal (valued at $19.7 billion) gave rise to significant overlaps in the (...)
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CFI, 28 September 2004, MCI Inc. v. Commission, Case T-310/00 On 28 September 2004, the Court of First Instance annulled the Commission’s decision prohibiting the merger between WorldCom (now MCI) and Sprint (ECC, COMP/M.1741, MCI WorldCom/Sprint, 28 June 2000, OJEC No L 300, 18 Nov. 2003, (...)
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EC Comm, 19 July 2004, Sony/BMG, Case COMP/M.3333 On 19 July 2004, the Commission approved the creation of Sony BMG, a joint venture combining the recorded music activities of Sony and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG). The Commission adopted this decision after Phase II of the review without (...)
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ECJ, Opinion of Advocate General Tizzano, 25 May 2004, case C-13/03/ P, Tetra Laval / Sidel On 25 May 2004, Advocate General Tizzano delivered his Opinion in Commission v Tetra Laval. This is the first merger case to be decided by the Court of First Instance. conglomerates - i.e. mergers (...)
