Douglas Lahnborg is a partner in the Antitrust and Competition Group. His practice covers all areas of EU and UK competition law.
He has advised extensively on merger and acquisitions under the UK Enterprise Act 2002 and EC Merger Regulation. Mr. Lahnborg has wide experience from advising on issues relating to Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty and corresponding UK legislation, including representation of clients before the EC Commission in cartel investigations. He has advised several companies in abuse of dominance investigations, including in the fields of software and pharmaceuticals.
Representative UK Engagements include advising:
- Enron Coal Services Ltd (in liquidation) in its private damages claim against English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd (on going).
- H.J. Heinz on its completed acquisition of HP Foods (cleared without undertakings after in-depth investigations by the U.K. Competition Commission).
- Cable & Wireless on its acquisition of telecoms operator Energis (cleared by the Office of Fair Trading).
Representative EU engagements include advising:
- Venture Production on the hostile takeover bid launched by Centrica; notified under EC Merger Regulation.
- Glaxo Wellcome on its merger with SmithKline Beecham (the largest merger in the pharmaceutical industry; cleared with undertakings in first phase).
- Telenor on its merger with Telia (the first merger between incumbent telecom operators in the EU; cleared with undertakings after in-depth investigation by the EC Commission); its acquisitions of various Nordic mobile telephone operators, including the Swedish mobile telephone business of Vodafone (cleared in first phase); and its long term pay-TV distribution agreement.
- Ericsson on its mobile handset joint venture with Sony (cleared in first phase).
- BAE Systems on the restructuring of Airbus (cleared in first phase); and its acquisition of United Defense (national clearances achieved).
- Aviva, the insurance group, on its public bid for RAC (cleared in first phase).
- Temasek, the Singaporean conglomerate, on its public bid for P&O Ports (bid unsuccessful).
- Marconi, the telecoms equipment manufacturer, on its divestment of Marconi Mobile to Finmeccanica (cleared in first phase after the Commission had granted exemption for the transaction to close prior to clearance had been achieved).
- Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (now Vale), the Brazilian mining house, on its public bid for Inco (cleared in first phase).
Douglas is ranked as a leading competition lawyer in the Legal 500 2009.
Before joining Orrick, Mr. Lahnborg was a partner with Heller Ehrman's Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice and previously a senior associate in Slaughter and May's competition group. He spent one year with the EC Commission where he trained with the Merger Task Force and State Aid Policy Unit of DG Competition.
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