Matthew Levitt
Baker Botts (Brussels)
Partner
Matthew Levitt is a partner in Baker Botts’ Brussels office. Once described as “an excellent and highly intellectual performer - very charismatic, but tough if needed” (Chambers Global, 2008), he handles international and EU cartel investigations and coordinates multi-jurisdictional merger filing processes. Mr. Levitt has been involved in virtually every significant EU and UK competition law case concerning the maritime sector including the formation of P3 and 2M shipping alliances, the container shipping price signalling investigation, the maritime car carriers investigation, the opposition by DFDS to the Eurotunnel/SeaFrance takeover, the investigation of the International Association of Classification Societies, the merger of Maersk and P&O Nedlloyd, and the annulment of the €273m fines on the TACA parties. Mr. Levitt also has extensive experience in the energy sector, advising on the EU regulatory aspects of the Shah Deniz gas pipeline project, the EU Power exchange investigation, and handling mergers in the utilities, water, ports and infrastructure sectors. He has also handled several ground-breaking cartel and abuse of dominance cases in the European Courts including, the Steel Beams case the Masterfoods / van den Bergh ice-cream cases and Woodpulp III.
Linked authors
Julie Albert
Baker Botts (New York)
Stuart Blythe
Baker Botts (London)
Michael P. Bodosky
Baker Botts (Washington)
Sean Boland
Baker Botts (Washington)
Mark J. Botti
Baker Botts (Washington)
8755 | Events
Articles
3857 Bulletin
267
On 26 March, the European Commission (“EC”) published its findings of the evaluation of procedural and jurisdictional aspects of EU merger control, and new guidance on the application of Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (“EUMR”) encouraging Member States to refer more transactions to the EC (...)
72
On 24 December 2020, the EU and the UK concluded the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (the “TCA”). The TCA, which is still subject to formal ratification by the EU, has been provisionally applied since 1 January 2021. One of the major issues of contention in the negotiations was to what extent (...)
222
In preparation for the end of the Brexit transition period, the CMA has recently released two consultations inviting comments on proposed updates to its merger control guidance and procedures. On 17 November 2020, the CMA released draft updates to its Merger Assessment Guidelines, which contain (...)
184
This week, the UK Government announced new draft powers under the National Security and Investment Bill (the ‘Bill’) to screen certain deals on national security grounds. The proposals apply to takeovers and investments (including minority share acquisitions) by foreign buyers in a wide range of (...)
264
Prolongs the Regime until 30 June 2021, Allows for Short-term Support for Uncovered Fixed Costs and Adapts Conditions for State Recapitalization Measures The European Commission (‘Commission’) relaxed the strict EU state aid rules and introduced a Temporary Framework (‘TF’) in March 2020 to allow (...)
208
The European Commission (Commission) recently announced a further step towards its forthcoming review of the State Aid Guidelines for Environmental Protection and Energy (EEAG). These guidelines, that were first adopted in 2014, are a major tool for the Commission to manage how its 27 Member (...)
296
Recently, the European Commission (“EC”) launched two major public consultations for new legislative tools intended to step up antitrust enforcement in digital and other markets. One consultation relates to a new competition enforcement tool that would allow the EC to pro-actively intervene in (...)
389
Firm Thought Leadership In what is destined to rank as one of the most significant judicial knockbacks of the European Commission (“Commission”) in the area of merger control for many years, the EU’s General Court (“Court”) has annulled the decision by the Commission in 2016 to prohibit the merger (...)
212
On 21 April 2020, the Competition Appeals Tribunal (the “CAT”) handed down its judgment (the “Judgment”) rejecting the appeal of Ecolab Inc. (“Ecolab”), a global company incorporated in the US, against the CMA’s merger decision on Ecolab’s acquisition of The Holchem Group Ltd (“Holchem”), a UK-based (...)
104
The EU and the UK have now both set out their negotiating mandates for the forthcoming trade negotiations. On 25 February 2020, the Council of the EU adopted a formal decision authorising the commencement of trade negotiations with the UK, together with a revised version of the European (...)
560
On 24 September 2019, the General Court (the ‘Court’) upheld the European Commission’s (the ‘Commission’) ruling ordering Luxembourg to recover EUR 23.1 million from Fiat Chrysler Finance Europe (‘FFT’) and annulled the Commission’s ruling ordering the Netherlands to recover EUR 25.7 million from (...)
388
On 26 August 2019, a German appeal court suspended an order of the German competition authority (the “FCO”) which had found that Facebook’s data processing practices in Germany constituted an abuse of dominance in breach of German antitrust rules (the “decision”). Expressing serious doubts as to the (...)
93
REMIT is an EU-level framework for identifying and penalising insider trading and market manipulation in wholesale electricity and gas markets in the EU. REMIT applies to any person/entity whose conduct affects these markets, irrespective of where the person/entity is based. There has been an (...)
108
Following an investigation opened in October 2017, the European Commission ("EC") has concluded that the UK’s policy (from 2013-2018) of allowing total or partial exemption for non-trading finance profits from the UK Controlled Foreign Company ("CFC") rules in part constituted unlawful State (...)
402
ONE-TIME INFORMATION EXCHANGE SUFFICIENT – A RECENT REMINDER IN THE UK* The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) recently welcomed the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of a challenge brought against a decision of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) by Balmoral, a supplier of steel water (...)
88
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued a draft guidance paper (Draft Guidance) concerning the application of UK competition law in the event that the UK withdraws from the EU in a "no-deal" Brexit scenario. Contained in the Draft Guidance are specific guidelines on the impact (...)
6330 Review
799
Camilla Jain Holtse, head of competition compliance at the world’s largest liner shipping company, discusses the challenges posed by the ever-growing number of competition authorities in a world without universally accepted standards of due process or substantive harmonisation. Interview (...)
5531
The Fifth annual conference of the Global Competition Law Centre, held in Brussels on 11-12 June 2009, was dedicated to the Commission’s review of EC Regulation 1/2003. These contributions are the summaries of six work groups: I) The directly applicable exception system and the direct (...)
