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Szabolcs Szendrő

Partner
Head of Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Portrait of Szabolcs Szendrő

Szabolcs Szendrő

Partner
Head of Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Contact
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP Magyarországi Fióktelepe
YBL Palace
Károlyi utca 12
1053 Budapest
Hungary
Languages Hungarian, English

Szabolcs Szendrő is a partner and Head of Antitrust, Competition and Trade at CMS Budapest. He has more than 10 years’ experience in Competition Law and has an economic background. 

Before joining CMS, he worked for the Hungarian Competition Authority as the chief legal counsel of the Merger Division, where among others he led in-depth investigations and contributed to legislative and regulatory measures actively. During his legal career at the Authority, he also amassed extensive experience in the fields of abuse of dominant position procedures and cartel cases, with special regards to Network Industries (e.g. Energy, Telecommunications, IT and Media). 

As a head of CMS Antitrust, Competition and Trade Team, Szabolcs leads major antirust cases including in-depth market analysis and detailed data screenings. Szabolcs also participates in domestic and cross-border mergers, cartel and abuse of dominance investigations, EU level competition cases, State aid investigations and consumer protection procedures. He provides legal advice and preliminary legal/economic analysis on wide range of competition law related issues. In addition to his core practice, Szabolcs is also involved in academics as he provides training and lectures for both local and international audiences. (e.g. OECD Capacity Building Projects in CEE) and Hungarian audience as an assistant lecturer at ELTE University of Law. 

 

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"He has great expertise and is able to put it into practical solutions."

Chambers, 2023

"He is super service oriented, has attention to detail and is very easy to communicate with. With his practical approach we have been able to solve very sensitive and complex business matters."

Chambers, 2023

"He has very good knowledge and immense professional experience in competition matters; he is able to give practical, well-elaborated advices; he understands and can clearly explain the competition aspects."

Legal 500, 2022

"He has a very broad knowledge of antitrust and also various industries, and his training in economics also allows him to give very complex advice to clients."

Chambers Europe 2022

"Super responsive and very diligent in working on a matter.”

Chambers, 2021

"Recommended."

Chambers, 2021 and Legal 500

"He makes a great appearance in front of court with detailed knowledge of law combined with a sheer willingness to win the case."

Legal 500, 2020

"excellent in competition matters, always concentrating on finding the best solution for the client."

Legal 500, 2020

"He has great expertise and is able to put it into practical solutions."

Chambers, 2023

"He is super service oriented, has attention to detail and is very easy to communicate with. With his practical approach we have been able to solve very sensitive and complex business matters."

Chambers, 2023

"He has very good knowledge and immense professional experience in competition matters; he is able to give practical, well-elaborated advices; he understands and can clearly explain the competition aspects."

Legal 500, 2022

"He has a very broad knowledge of antitrust and also various industries, and his training in economics also allows him to give very complex advice to clients."

Chambers Europe 2022

"Super responsive and very diligent in working on a matter.”

Chambers, 2021

"Recommended."

Chambers, 2021 and Legal 500

"He makes a great appearance in front of court with detailed knowledge of law combined with a sheer willingness to win the case."

Legal 500, 2020

"excellent in competition matters, always concentrating on finding the best solution for the client."

Legal 500, 2020

Relevant experience

  • Merger and Acquisition control – managing several in-depth investigations as the leader of the case handler team of the Hungarian Competition Authority, concerning companies such as: Telekom Group, RTL Group, Axel-Springer, MET, Gazprom, and Libri-Shopline. As a legal advisor he provided preliminary competition analysis for a planned joint venture of a leading Telecommunication Company, advised certain acquisitions over major financial market players and coordinated the multi-jurisdictional merger clearance notifications (EU and NON-EU states as well) of one of the significant Banks of the Hungarian market.
  • Antitrust investigations – as the leader of the case handler team Szabolcs managed, among others, the cartel investigation against local daily newspaper publishers; investigation on the vertical agreements of the media broadcaster associations; abuse of dominance investigation against MOL Group (Hungarian Oil Company). As an Associate, Szabolcs lead the successful defence of a Vaccine Manufacturer Company against excessive pricing investigation carried out by the Competition Authority; he managed to prevent the initiation of an abuse of dominance case concerning Health Care companies; he participated in alleged abusive loyalty rebate/bundling investigations and he provided advice for a Commercial Bank in a large scale cartel investigation and an alleged unlawful information sharing.
  • State aid procedures – participated in several preliminary State aid analyses and in presenting successful submissions to the European Commission (DG Comp) concerning certain affected sectors of Hungary.
  • Consumer protection – provided competition law and consumer protection assessments on potentially misleading advertisements for clients from the medical, financial, retail and general service sectors. He represents the clients subsequent to the Hungarian Competition Authority’s consumer protection investigations as well, with persuasive results on the Court level.
  • Litigation and Court representation – the provided services include representation at the investigation stages of the Authorities, and also the entire representation during court actions.
  • Preliminary analysis and market research – on potential Competition risks (e.g. vertical agreements, horizontal efficiencies, commercial communications); according to transaction plans, business initiatives or other potentially competition related issues, Szabolcs provides extensive assessment based on his experience concerning the Competition Authority’s tools and aspects.
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Memberships & Roles

  • Member, ACE (Association of Competition Economics)
  • Member, the Hungarian Association of Competition Law (Magyar Versenyjogi Egyesület)
  • Member, the Budapest Bar Association
  • the CMS antitrust lawyers’ steering committee
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Publications

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Lectures list

  • Assistant lecturer on Competition Policy and Competition Law – Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Law.
  • Visiting lecturer at the University of Szeged, Faculty of Law.
  • Visiting lecturer on Market Analysis / Competition Economics - Central European University, Department of Public Policy.
  • Lecturer at Capacity Building Program of EBRD (Ukraine).
  • Lecturer at Twinning Programs of OECD (China, Albania, Ukraine).
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Education

  • 2012 - Post-graduate degree in Economics, University of Corvinus, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2007 - American Legal Experts, Certificate degree, University of Toledo, Ohio, USA
  • 2007 - Doctor of Law, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
  • 2005 - European Law Specialisation Program, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
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Expertise

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28/04/2023
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03/04/2023
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En­vir­on­ment­al aware­ness and sus­tain­ab­il­ity have been sub­jects of in­tense dis­cus­sions since they are of grow­ing im­port­ance to in­di­vidu­als in their daily de­cisions. Be­cause this di­men­sion of eco­nom­ic com­pet­i­tion...
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31/03/2023
CMS Ex­pert guide on Right Bid­ding vs Bid Rig­ging
Pub­lic pro­cure­ment rules and their strict ob­serv­ance is of key im­port­ance to en­sure good qual­ity products and ser­vices to cit­izens on the best pos­sible fin­an­cial and ser­vice de­liv­ery terms. An ef­fi­cient...
Law-Now Energy & Climate Change
20/03/2023
CMS Ex­pert Guide: Right Bid­ding vs Bid Rig­ging
  What is bid rig­ging and why is it an im­port­ant is­sue? Pub­lic pro­cure­ment rules and their strict ob­serv­ance is of key im­port­ance to en­sure good qual­ity products and ser­vices to cit­izens on the best...
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20/02/2023
Up­date from Hun­gari­an com­pet­i­tion au­thor­ity launches mar­ket ana­lys­is of...
On 14 Novem­ber 2022, the Hun­gari­an Com­pet­i­tion Au­thor­ity (HCA) ini­ti­ated a mar­ket ana­lys­is to study green claims, and more spe­cific­ally the com­mer­cial com­mu­nic­a­tions for Hun­gari­an products, ser­vices and...
Law-Now Consumer Products
11/01/2023
CMS Com­pet­i­tion Law and Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Series Part 3: Sus­tain­ab­il­ity...
As a con­tinu­ation of our pre­vi­ous art­icle that fo­cused on ‘green com­mu­nic­a­tions’, in this art­icle we will ad­dress the po­ten­tial and de­vel­op­ing role of sus­tain­ab­il­ity in the field of re­strict­ive agree­ments...
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19/12/2022
Hun­gari­an mer­ger con­trol changes to be ac­tiv­ated in Janu­ary 2023
Mul­tiple de­vel­op­ments con­cern­ing the Hun­gari­an mer­ger con­trol re­gime will come in­to play in the New Year. As of 1 Janu­ary 2023, the Hun­gari­an Com­pet­i­tion Act, and in par­tic­u­lar its pro­vi­sions on mer­ger...
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15/11/2022
Hun­gari­an com­pet­i­tion au­thor­ity launches mar­ket ana­lys­is of 'green claim­s'
Up­date from 20/02/2023On 14 Novem­ber 2022, the Hun­gari­an Com­pet­i­tion Au­thor­ity (HCA) ini­ti­ated a mar­ket ana­lys­is to study green claims, and more spe­cific­ally the com­mer­cial com­mu­nic­a­tions for Hun­gari­an...
Law-Now Private Equity
04/10/2022
CMS Com­pet­i­tion Law and Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Series Part 2 – Green...
As part of the CMS Com­pet­i­tion Law and Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Series, in this seg­ment we dive in­to the con­sumer pro­tec­tion ver­sion of “gre­en­wash­ing” and high­light a few im­port­ant re­cent cases. What...
Law-Now ESG
14/06/2022
The new EU Om­ni­bus Dir­ect­ive and the Up­com­ing Com­pet­i­tion Law Changes
Dur­ing this busi­ness break­fast our main fo­cus will be the new EU Om­ni­bus Dir­ect­ive and its po­ten­tial ef­fects, also the up­com­ing com­pet­i­tion law changes, in­clud­ing:the com­pet­i­tion law as­pects of the ESG...
Event Legal
13/06/2022
CMS Com­pet­i­tion Law and Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Series / Part 1 - Emer­ging...
The concept of sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment plays a more im­port­ant role in our daily lives than ever be­fore, which af­fects both av­er­age cit­izens and large com­pan­ies. A re­cent European sur­vey (Euroba­ro­met­er...
Law-Now Energy & Climate Change
06/05/2022
Train­ing on com­pet­i­tion law and pub­lic pro­cure­ment law, with spe­cial em­phas­is...
CMS Bud­apest is host­ing a series of ac­cred­it­a­tion train­ing events ap­proved by the Hun­gari­an Bar As­so­ci­ation as part of the new com­puls­ory ac­cred­it­a­tion sys­tem in Hun­gary.  Train­ing on com­pet­i­tion law...
Event Webinar
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