Christos Tsoumanis works at the European Commission, Directorate General for Competition, as a case handler in the case support and policy unit for Mergers and Antitrust. Prior to joining DG Competition, Christos worked at Clifford Chance LLP, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and the State aid - Taskforce for financial crisis unit of DG Competition. Throughout his work at the Commission, Mr. Tsoumanis has been involved in numerous merger cases, in particular in-depth investigations in the fields of pharmaceuticals, telecoms and consumer goods. He drafted and published the Commission’s best practices on the disclosure of information in data rooms for both merger and antitrust proceedings. In the area of behavioural investigations, Mr. Tsoumanis advised a large pharmaceutical corporation regarding a CMA investigation on alleged abuse of dominance by pricing excessively and unfairly. He also assisted a dominant consumer electronics company on alleged abuse of dominance by seeking an injunction based on infringement of Standard Essential Patents. Mr. Tsoumanis was part of the Taskforce for financial crisis of DG Competition. He was involved in the restructuring of Greek banks as well as the assessment of the viability of banks that benefited from state aid in the form of recapitalisations in the context of the Economic Adjustment Program for Greece. Mr. Tsoumanis was also involved in the Working Group responsible for the Rescue and Restructuring Guidelines for financial institutions. While working in the private sector, Mr. Tsoumanis advised the Hellenic Republic on the restructuring of its EUR 206 billion private sector held bonds (PSI) — the largest sovereign debt restructuring in history — and on various aspects of the Republic’s economic reform program in negotiations with the EFSF, ECB, EIB and the European Commission. Christos holds a UK LL.B, a UK LL.M from University College London (UCL) and is a fully qualified Attorney at Law in Athens. He speaks English, Greek and French.
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Staples/Office Depot : House of Paper* In a nutshell : In February this year, the European Commission approved the acquisition of Office Depot by Staples. Three months later, the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction to block (...)
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Introduction On 30 March 2015, the European Commission conditionally cleared Zimmer’s acquisition of Biomet, following an in-depth investigation. Zimmer and Biomet are two of the five leading competitors in the medical implants industry. The transaction was initially notified on 3 June (...)
