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Kyriakos Fountoukakos

Managing Partner, Competition Regulation and Trade
Brussels

Kyriakos is the managing partner of competition, regulation and trade as well as the Brussels office, and deals with all aspects of European Union and United Kingdom competition law. 

Kyriakos has more than two decades of experience in competition law. He was formerly a European Commission official at the Directorate General for Competition’s Merger Task Force and a Référendaire (legal assistant) in the cabinet of the President of the General Court of the EU. Kyriakos’s clients value his understanding of economic issues, and his insider knowledge gained at the European Commission and at the General Court.

Kyriakos advises international clients in sectors including TMT, pharma, energy and mining, consumer products, financial services and insurance, manufacturing, rail, and air transport on a range of areas including merger control (mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures), cartels, antitrust investigations and advice, distribution agreements, dominance, and competition litigation before the EU courts. 

Kyriakos works closely with the Herbert Smith Freehills network to provide advice on multi-jurisdictional transactions and investigations. He is particularly active in advising clients in Japan and manages Herbert Smith Freehills' cross-border Japan competition practice. 

He is widely recognised as a leading competition lawyer – ranked in the Who’s Who Legal Competition: Thought Leaders and other major directories – and has over 20 years of experience in competition law. Kyriakos is fluent in English, Greek and French.

Background

Kyriakos studied law and European studies at the University of Athens (LLB), King’s College London (LLM), University of Cambridge (MPhil in European Studies) and Columbia Law School, New York (LLM). He is qualified to practise in Greece and as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Experience & expertise

Selected matters

  • Comcast and its subsidiary Sky in connection with the EU and international merger control aspects of a new joint venture with ViacomCBS to create a new online TV streaming platform (SkyShowtime)
  • United Group, a leading provider of telecommunications services and media in Southeast Europe, on the EU merger control aspects of its acquisition of the Greek telecoms operator Wind Hellas
  • Google in connection with appealing against the European Commission's decision to fine Google €2.42 billion in the Google Search (Shopping) investigation
  • A leading bank on the high-profile investigation by the European Commission into a cartel in the spot foreign exchange (forex) market
  • AerCap on obtaining clearance from the EU and a number of other jurisdictions for its US$30 billion combination with General Electric Capital Aviation Services (GECAS)
  • Synthomer on the merger control aspects of its proposed US$ 1 billion acquisition of Eastman Chemical’s adhesives business; and on the competition aspects of its US$824 million acquisition of OMNOVA
  • Abbvie on obtaining EU merger control clearance for its US$63 billion acquisition of Allergan
  • Uber Technologies on the merger control aspects of its US$ 3.1 billion acquisition of Careem (the largest ride sharing provider in the Middle East)