Biography • Competition

Martin Bechtold is a partner in our Brussels and Frankfurt offices.

His expertise covers the core aspects of competition law (EU merger control, EU cartel and dominance cases, antitrust litigation, general counselling/advisory/compliance work) as well as broader issues of EU law.

He advises clients from a wide variety of industries in merger control cases before the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office and assists them in antitrust investigations carried out by these authorities. His clients include Bilfinger Berger, Boon Edam, Borealis, Cargill, DZ-Bank, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Ferrero, General Electric, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Sara Lee, Tele2 Sverige, Telenor and 3i. Martin has particular expertise in the consumer products, financial services, automotive, pharmaceutical and technology areas and is co-author of the American Bar Association's book Competition Law outside the United States.

Prior to joining Allen & Overy Martin was a case handler at the Federal Cartel Office in Berlin from 1986 to 1989 and he has extensive EU and German merger control experience including several high-profile second phase investigations.

Chambers Europe 2012 states: "Martin Bechtold focuses on merger control and is praised as 'an excellent analyst, who is always in the know and gives very pragmatic advice.' He is well known for conducting merger control matters before the EC, as well as before Germany's Bundeskartellamt."

Allen & Overy's antitrust and competition team comprises over 100 specialists located across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States. We advise corporates and financial institutions on their global antitrust policies, litigation and regulatory strategies and have acted on some of the highest-profile and most complex cases in recent years.