Partner

Szabolcs Szendrő

Head of Antitrust, Competition and Trade, Co-Head of CEE Competition Group

Languages

Hungarian
English

Szabolcs is a Partner and Head of Competition at CMS Budapest, and also co-heads the CEE Competition Group. 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.

Awards & Recognitions

01 –

Quote

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

Chambers, 2023
Quote

"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
Quote

"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
Quote

"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
Quote

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

Chambers, 2021
Quote

"Recommended."

Chambers, 2021 and Legal 500
Quote

"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
Quote

"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.

Publications

2021 - Rákapcsolt a versenyhivatal: ezekre a cégekre jobban figyelhetnek majd a következő hónapokban - Portfolio.hu (Hungarian article)
2020 - Hungary: Recent Competition Law Decisions to Challenge Your Data Collection Practice, ceelegalmatters.com
2016 - Competition law workshop on Private Damages Actions / EU Directive (article in Hungarian), Origo
2014 - CMS Spring Breakfast Series –Seller and Buyer in the same boat (article in Hungarian), Origo
2014 - Overview of the recent merger control cases of the European Commission with special regards to the upcoming trends and developments (study in Hungarian, co-author: Aranka Nagy), Versenytükör
2014 - Substantial changes in the Hungarian merger control regulations, (study in Hungarian, co-author: Ádám Hajós, Dávid Kuritár), Versenytükör

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

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).

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

Practice Areas

Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Insights

Global Reach