Chris Cook’s practice focuses on international competition and antitrust law.

In the transactional field, he has extensive experience representing both transacting and opposing parties in mergers and joint ventures before the European Commission and various national antitrust regulators in and beyond Europe. He has also worked on a number of non-transactional competition matters in Europe and abroad involving alleged abusive conduct and cartel behavior. Chris is a co-author of the leading treatise on EU merger control, updated annually.

Chris joined the firm in 1997, became counsel in 2006, and a partner in 2014. From 1997-99, he was based in the Washington, D.C., office.

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Notable Experiences

  • Synopsys in its pending $35 billion acquisition of Ansys.

  • Raytheon Technologies (formerly United Technologies Corporation) in various transformative transactions, including the $135 billion combination of UTC and Raytheon to form Raytheon Technologies, UTC’s $30 billion acquisition of Rockwell Collins, and UTC’s $17 billion acquisition of Goodrich.

  • OpenText Corp. in its $6 billion acquisition of Micro Focus International plc.

  • TPG Capital and related funds in a number of acquisitions and investments, including process automation leader Nintex, global music data platform Musixmatch, and AI and analytics provider Fractal; and disposals including the sale of logistics technology platform Transplace to Uber Freight.

  • Allied Universal in its acquisitions of G4S plc and Attenti Group.

  • Westlake Chemical in several antitrust and merger control matters, including its acquisition of Hexion’s global epoxy business.

  • The Dow Chemical Company in its $130 billion merger of equals with DuPont.

  • HSBC in investigations by regulators in the U.S., EU and Asia concerning global FX trading.

  • Citigroup in the EU Commission’s investigation into the setting of Libor benchmark rates.

  • A group of major global oil producers including ExxonMobil and Chevron in advising the OECD’s International Energy Agency on oil supply security issues.

  • Showa Denko K.K. in its $9 billion acquisition of Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.

  • Tech Data in the company’s acquisition by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management Inc., and previously in its $2.6 billion acquisition of Avnet, Inc.’s technology solutions business.

  • The Coca-Cola Company on various compliance and transactional matters including with Cadbury Schweppes, Carlsberg, Illy, Nestlé, and Fresh Trading.

  • Vale S.A. in several transactions and behavioral matters.

  • Sony Corporation in its $2.3 billion acquisition of EMI Music Publishing.

  • ArcelorMittal on the €4.2 billion acquisition of the group Ilva S.p.A.

  • GlaxoSmithKline on the global antitrust aspects of its three-part transaction with Novartis involving its Consumer Healthcare, Vaccines and Oncology businesses.

  • Actavis in its $66 billion agreement to acquire Allergan.

  • AbbVie on the antitrust aspects of its $21 billion acquisition of Pharmacyclics.

  • Ryanair on the competition aspects of its bid to acquire Aer Lingus.

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Publications

European Merger Control Law: A Guide to the Merger Regulation, LexisNexis, annual publication.

“Advocate General Sides with Commission in its Appeal of General Court’s Overturning of Three/O2 Prohibition,” Cleary Antitrust Watch blog, October 24, 2022

“Recent Developments in EU Merger Remedies,” Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, annual publication 2015-2021.

“European Commission Announces New Policy to Accept Member State Referrals for Merger Review Even if EC and National Thresholds Are Not Met,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, October 12, 2020

“Single Branding and Tying,” EU Competition Law VI: Vertical Restraints, April 2020.

“Recent Developments in EU Merger Remedies,” Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, May 2018.

“Online Sales of Luxury Goods in Selective Distribution Networks – Coty Judgment,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, January 8, 2018.

“The EU Commission fines a company for providing incorrect or misleading information during its investigation on a merger (Facebook / WhatsApp)”, by François-Charles Laprévote, Maurits Dolmans, Thomas Graf, Nicholas Levy, Francisco Enrique González-Díaz and Christopher Cook, e-Competitions, No. 84276, June 2017, pp. 1-4.

“Real Review Timetables under the EU Merger Regulation,” Concurrences, 2017.

“Recent Developments in EU Merger Remedies,” Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, 2015-2017.

“Developments in EU Private Antitrust Damages Litigation,” University of Barcelona, 2013.

“Dominance,” EU Competition Law – Volume V Abuse of Dominance under Article 102 TFEU, Claeys & Casteels, Leuven, 2013 (61-113).

“Implications of Settling an EU Cartel Investigation for a Prospective Civil Damages Defendant,” Global Competition Litigation Review, 2011.

“EU Member State Court Experience in Applying EU Competition Law under Modernization,” EU and US Antitrust Arbitration – A Handbook for Practitioners, Ed. Gordon Blanke, Ed. Phillip Landolt, Kluwer Law International, 2011.

Events

  • September 2019 – RBB Roundtable: The Role of Economics in Competition Law Enforcement
  • May 24, 2018 – CompLaw’s EU Merger Control 2018
  • May 4, 2017 – ABA Global Seminar Series: Broadening the Innovation Theory of Harm in Merger Review – Moving from the Specific to the Speculative?
  • February 2-3, 2017 – 5th IBA European Corporate and Private M&A Conference
  • October 20-21, 2016 – The Association of General Counsel’s Annual Meeting
  • April 28-29, 2015 – IBC Legal’s 24th Annual Forum: Advanced EU Competition Law 2016
  • March 2, 2015 – Concurrences’ Law and Economics Workshop
  • June 20, 2013 – CGSH Antitrust Seminar: Legal and Policy Issues Arising From Recent EU & US Antitrust Developments
  • November 2012 – International Conference on Damages for Breach of Antitrust Rules
  • April 20, 2010 – CGSH Antitrust Seminar: Global Antitrust Today