Marianne Wagener

Marianne is an antitrust and competition lawyer and head of the South African life sciences and healthcare practice, based in Johannesburg. She is experienced in competition and trade law and has significant experience in a variety of regulatory matters and investigations. Marianne has been named as an up and coming lawyer in the field of competition law in various top international publications, including Legal500 and Chambers Global. Chambers Global gives Marianne “strong recognition for her competition law practice, with clients noting her good communication skills and on-the-ball approach." She is also listed as a recommended competition lawyer in Legal500, 2015. Marianne focuses on abuse of dominance and cartel investigations, including applications for corporate leniency, dawn raids and subsequent search and seizure litigation and settlement negotiations. Marianne has provided a comparative analysis of the European Merger Regulation in an exclusive chapter in the 2014 International Economic Law and African Development guide. The chapter deals with the jurisdiction of the COMESA Competition Commission for merger transactions. Marianne advises clients in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Tanzania particularly in the healthcare, financial services, information technology, agriculture, construction and mining industries. She has assisted clients to obtain clearance in several large, complex merger transactions in South Africa and other sub-Saharan African jurisdictions. Since inception of the merger regulations by the COMESA Competition Commission she has advised clients trading in the COMESA states on merger filings. Marianne regularly designs and implements training programmes and competition law compliance audits for clients as well as dawn raid readiness. She has particular experience in designing compliance programmes for industry associations. She also advises clients in proceedings before regulators such as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) with regards to licensing and other regulatory issues. She recently advised Exxaro Resources limited on acquisition of Total Coal South Africa (Pty) Limited from Total SA’. Marianne is regularly invited to address key competition law conferences and is frequently asked to comment in the media on topical competition law issues. She obtained a master’s degree in Commercial Law from the University of South Africa, cum laude, after obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce degree (majoring in law) and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Stellenbosch. She was also recently awarded a certificate in Advance International Trade Law, cum laude, from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg School of Law. Marianne is a member of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces.