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Antitrust, Competition & Trade

The Competition team of CMS Switzerland advises across the full range of Swiss and EU antitrust and competition matters. Based in Zurich and Geneva, the two main Swiss financial centres, we are part of the wider CMS Antitrust, Competition and Trade (ACT) group, one of the largest specialist competition and trade teams in the world. More than 225 CMS experts advise clients in more than 40 countries worldwide on all ACT matters.

We cover all key areas of Antitrust, Competition and Trade law – internationally and in Switzerland:

  • Competition and cartel investigations
  • Merger Control
  • Vertical agreements
  • Horizontal agreements
  • Abuse of dominance and economic dependence
  • Unfair competition
  • Compliance
  • Private enforcement
  • Trade law and sanctions
  • Foreign investment screening
  • Digital markets
  • Regulatory

We represent our clients in proceedings before competition authorities such as the Swiss Competition Commission and other regulatory authorities as well as courts. We have renowned sectoral experience, including in automotive, construction, consumer products/FMCG and retail, energy, life sciences, IT services, payments solutions, and telecommunications among other sectors.

Our clients range from large multinationals who frequently use our team as their ACT law firm of choice for the entire region, to governments and a high number of small and medium-sized companies.

Our size and very wide footprint enable us to handle all ACT matters irrespective of their geographic dimension. Where necessary we cooperate with long established contacts from our wider network of law firms across the world. 

We use the most up-to-date technical and AI tools to support our business in Switzerland and abroad.

We run frequent webinars and events on Swiss and EU competition developments and hold a renowned annual EU competition law conference, which has become a feature in the Brussels calendar.  We put out regular case law updates on competition and trade developments on our Law Now service.  Moreover, our international group is steered, not just by a management committee of partners but also by an active associates’ group that keeps us innovating to serve clients.

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Com­pet­i­tion and car­tel in­vest­ig­a­tions
Com­pan­ies need to be alive to the pos­sib­il­ity of in­vest­ig­a­tions and fines for anti-com­pet­it­ive be­ha­viour. We de­fend our cli­ents in car­tel and oth­er re
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Blue lines in waves
Mer­ger Con­trol
We have a long and ex­tens­ive track re­cord of ad­vising cli­ents on mer­ger con­trol re­quire­ments and rep­res­ent­ing them in Swiss and multi-jur­is­dic­tion­al m
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Team hands together
Ver­tic­al agree­ments
We give cli­ents con­fid­ence in their re­la­tion­ships with sup­pli­ers, re­sellers and cus­tom­ers, on­line and off­line. By re­view­ing and as­sist­ing them in shap
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Violet bubbles
Ho­ri­zont­al agree­ments
The line between ad­miss­ible con­duct and in­fringe­ment can be thin. We ad­vise on the full range of ho­ri­zont­al co­oper­a­tion or co­ordin­a­tion between com­pan
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Woman standing on top of a mountain
Ab­use of dom­in­ance and eco­nom­ic de­pend­ence
Com­pan­ies with strong mar­ket po­s­i­tions are sub­ject to in­creas­ing scru­tiny of their con­duct in the mar­ket, which may lead to un­wanted reg­u­lat­ory in­terv
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Un­fair com­pet­i­tion
Po­ten­tial civil law claims re­lated to mis­con­duct of com­pet­it­ors in­volve not only com­pet­i­tion-re­lated private en­force­ment res­ult­ing from an­ti­com­pet­it­iv
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Tunnel out of lights
Com­pli­ance
We provide day-to-day ad­vice in all com­pet­i­tion law mat­ters to help cli­ents avoid any con­flicts with com­pet­i­tion laws. We ad­vise cli­ents on the set-up
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Private en­force­ment
We act for claimants and de­fend­ants in com­pet­i­tion-re­lated private en­force­ment mat­ters, in a jur­is­dic­tion known for its still very lim­ited num­ber of c
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For­eign in­vest­ment screen­ing
While, un­til today, there is no leg­al re­gime on for­eign in­vest­ment con­trol in Switzer­land, our broad foot­print al­lows us to of­fer a one-stop shop solu
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Blue and orange color merging like yin and yang
Ex­port con­trol and sanc­tions
In an in­creas­ingly chal­len­ging in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness world, we help com­pan­ies to re­main com­pli­ant and keep sup­ply chains mov­ing. With ex­port con­trol
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Di­git­al mar­kets
CMS is widely re­cog­nised as a lead­er in provid­ing com­pet­i­tion and oth­er leg­al ad­vice to cli­ents from the di­git­al and tech­no­logy mar­kets. In its 'Di­git
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Reg­u­lat­ory
Com­pan­ies in reg­u­lated in­dus­tries are un­der con­stant scru­tiny over anti-com­pet­it­ive be­ha­viour. With our in-depth sec­tor spe­cif­ic com­pet­i­tion law ex­per
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13/07/2020
CMS Ex­pert Guide to an­ti­trust law and le­gis­la­tion dur­ing Cov­id-19
 Any busi­ness in the world could be af­fected by the coronavir­us (COV­ID-19) pan­dem­ic. For many, ur­gent meas­ures need to be taken to avoid ser­i­ous fin­an­cial con­sequences as a res­ult of these chal­len­ging and un­pre­ced­en­ted times.Busi­ness mod­els will like
Expert Guide Antitrust, Competition and Trade
Comparable
22/07/2019
CMS Com­pet­i­tion Con­tact Card
The CMS Com­pet­i­tion Group has more than 180 com­pet­i­tion law­yers in 48 cit­ies in 34 coun­tries, mak­ing it one of the largest com­pet­i­tion teams in Europe. We can read­ily bol­ster our teams with com­pet­i­tion...
Brochures
04/02/2019
CMS Dawn Raid As­sist­ant app
CMS has launched a free mo­bile ap­plic­a­tion that provides guid­ance for com­pet­i­tion-law dawn raids in 27 coun­tries.Dawn raids are be­com­ing more com­mon these days, with au­thor­it­ies im­pos­ing huge fines, in­spect­ors...
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26/04/2023
CMS one of the "Top Law Firms" in Switzer­land in 28 areas of law
The Swiss busi­ness magazine BIL­ANZ, the Han­delszei­tung, and the magazine PME have awar­ded the "Top Law Firms" in Switzer­land for the 7th time. Out of the 31 leg­al areas, CMS von Er­lach Part­ners (CMS Switzer­land) was ranked as one of the top 25 law firms in Switzer­land in 28 areas, which is more than any oth­er law firm in Switzer­land. This con­firms our po­s­i­tion as a lead­ing full-ser­vice law firm in the coun­try.
News
12/04/2023
CMS Switzer­land re­com­men­ded by The Leg­al 500 EMEA 2023
Rank­ings of CMS Switzer­land in The Leg­al 500 EMEA 2023 Edi­tion
News
03/2023
CMS Switzer­land re­com­men­ded in the Cham­bers Europe Guide 2023
Cham­bers and Part­ners has pub­lished its rank­ings of Europe's lead­ing law firms and law­yers in the Europe Guide 2023. Our firm and our law­yers are lis­ted in both rank­ings for Switzer­land.
News
10/03/2023
State aid: the Gen­er­al Court of the EU an­nuls the de­cision of the European...
On 8 Feb­ru­ary 2023, the Gen­er­al Court of the EU an­nulled the European Com­mis­sion de­cision that had con­cluded to the ab­sence of  aid gran­ted by Tim­ișoara Air­port in fa­vour of Wizz Air fol­low­ing an an­nul­ment...
Law-Now Antitrust, Competition & Trade
16/02/2023
For­eign sub­sidies con­trol cre­ates a bur­den­some mer­ger con­trol 3.0
For­eign sub­sidies con­trols have the po­ten­tial to cre­ate an ad­di­tion­al bur­den­some clear­ance pro­ced­ure for M&A trans­ac­tions on top of mer­ger and in­vest­ment con­trol pro­ced­ures:  High ad­min­is­trat­ive bur­dens...
Law-Now Antitrust, Competition & Trade
19/12/2022
European Com­mis­sion’s green light to €14.3 mil­lion Croa­tian com­pens­a­tion...
Law-Now Antitrust, Competition & Trade
11/11/2022
CMS ad­vises Bruker on its in­vest­ment in Nav­ign­ostics
Bruker Cor­por­a­tion, a NAS­DAQ-lis­ted US tech com­pany in the ana­lyt­ic­al in­stru­ment­a­tion sec­tor, in­vests in Nav­ign­ostics. Bruker led the CHF 7.5 mil­lion seed fin­an­cing round, which was also joined by Think.Health Ven­tures, Ven­tura Bio­med In­vestors and Zürch­er Kan­ton­al­bank.Nav­ign­ostics strives to sup­port the se­lec­tion of tar­geted and im­muno-on­co­logy ther­apies tailored to the tu­mour phen­o­type of in­di­vidu­al can­cer pa­tients by us­ing ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence driv­en soft­ware com­bined with single-cell re­solved spa­tial pro­teo­m­ic tu­mour data. The fund­ing will strengthen Nav­ign­ostic­s' abil­ity to col­lab­or­ate with clin­ic­al, bi­o­tech­no­logy and phar­ma­ceut­ic­al part­ners and ac­cel­er­ate the de­vel­op­ment of its first dia­gnost­ic product.A team from CMS Switzer­land, led by part­ner Stefan Brunnsch­weiler, ad­vised Bruker on all leg­al mat­ters of the trans­ac­tion. Bruker is a long­stand­ing CMS cli­ent and has been ad­vised by CMS on sev­er­al ac­quis­i­tions and dis­pos­als in the past.CMS Switzer­land­Stefan Brunnsch­weiler, Part­ner, Cor­por­ate / M&APas­cal Stock­er, As­so­ci­ate, Cor­por­ate / M&ADr Si­mone Brauch­bar Birkhäuser, Coun­sel, In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty­Hadi Mirzai, As­so­ci­ate, Life Sci­ences and Com­pet­i­tion­Sarah Keller, As­so­ci­ate, Em­ploy­ment 
Deals
01/11/2022
Di­git­al Mar­kets Act (DMA) comes in­to force on 1 Novem­ber 2022
The Di­git­al Mar­ket Act (DMA) was pub­lished in the Of­fi­cial Journ­al of the European Uni­on on 12 Oc­to­ber, and it will enter in­to force on 1 Novem­ber. Large di­git­al plat­forms that of­fer core plat­form ser­vices...
Law-Now Commercial
28/10/2022
CMS ad­vises on joint ven­ture between Voigt Hold­ing AG and PHOENIX Pharma...
Zurich, 28 Oc­to­ber 2022The Voigt Group and PHOENIX Pharma Switzer­land have agreed to merge their sub­si­di­ar­ies, each act­ive in phar­ma­ceut­ic­al lo­gist­ics and phar­ma­ceut­ic­al whole­sale sec­tors re­spect­ively, in­to a 50/50 joint ven­ture. The two long-es­tab­lished and fin­an­cially sound com­pan­ies are an ideal fit with com­ple­ment­ary of­fer­ings and com­pet­en­cies in the sup­ply chain.Sub­ject to ap­prov­al by the Swiss Com­pet­i­tion Com­mis­sion, this joint ven­ture will cre­ate a new, com­pet­ent and sus­tain­able play­er in the sup­ply chain of the Swiss health­care mar­ket.A CMS Switzer­land team led by Dr Patrick Som­mer provided com­pre­hens­ive leg­al ad­vice to Voigt Group on this joint ven­ture.CMS Switzer­land: Dr. Patrick Som­mer, Part­ner, Lead, Cor­por­ate / M&A, Com­pet­i­tion & EU­Alain Raemy, Part­ner, Cor­por­ate / M&AM­arquard Christen, Part­ner, Com­pet­i­tion & EU­Dirk Spacek, Part­ner, In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty­Dr Si­mone Brauch­bar Birkhäuser, Coun­sel, In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty­Hadi Mirzai, As­so­ci­ate, Life Sci­ences, Com­pet­i­tion & EUAl­ex­an­dra Stock­er, As­so­ci­ate, Cor­por­ate / M&AAnna Mast, As­so­ci­ate, Cor­por­ate / M&ADr. Mat­thi­as Kuert, As­so­ci­ate, Bank­ing & Fin­an­ceTho­mas Zweifel, As­so­ci­ate, Real Es­tat­e­Christina Winter, As­so­ci­ate, Em­ploy­ment
Deals
22/09/2022
CMS ad­vised ACE SWISS Group on the sale of a ma­jor­ity stake in Cas­inò Lo­c­arno...
Zurich, 22 Septem­ber 2022The ACE SWISS Group has sold a ma­jor­ity stake of 81% in Cas­inò Lo­c­arno SA to Stadtcasino Baden AG and will re­tain a 19% stake.Be­sides Cais­nò Lo­c­arno, the ACE SWISS Group op­er­ates Casino AD­MIR­AL in Mendrisio. In ad­di­tion, it also holds minor­ity stakes in oth­er lead­ing Swiss casi­nos: Casino Bad Ragaz, Casino In­ter­laken, and Stadtcasino Baden.Un­der the changed own­er­ship struc­ture, Casino Lo­c­arno will sub­mit its ap­plic­a­tion for a B li­cence at the ex­ist­ing loc­a­tion as part of the real­loc­a­tion of casino li­cences.A team led by Stefan Brunnsch­weiler and Alain Raemy provided com­pre­hens­ive leg­al ad­vice to ACE SWISS Group in con­nec­tion with the trans­ac­tion.CMS Switzer­land­Stefan Brunnsch­weiler, Lead, Part­ner, Cor­por­ate / M&AAlain Raemy, Part­ner, Cor­por­ate / M&AM­ark Ca­gi­enard, Part­ner, Tax­Marquard Christen, Part­ner, Com­pet­i­tion & EU­Anna Mast, As­so­ci­ate, Cor­por­ate / M&ANad­ine Keller, Train­ee, Cor­por­ate / M&A
Deals
13/09/2022
CMS ad­vised Dif­fulivre
Dif­fulivre's suc­cess­ful ap­peal be­fore the Swiss Su­preme Court in the French lan­guage books case
Deals
13/09/2022
UPC Rules of Pro­ced­ure go in­to force with judg­ments to be made pub­lic
The entry in­to force of the Rules of Pro­ced­ure is part of the fi­nal pre­par­a­tions for the United Pat­ent Court (UPC), which is cur­rently ex­pec­ted to start work in early 2023. After the bod­ies of the UPC...
Law-Now Life Sciences & Healthcare
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