Profile details
About Bertrand Guerin
Bertrand is a counsel in our antitrust, competition and trade group. He shares his time between our Berlin, Germany and Silicon Valley, California offices. A dual-qualified competition lawyer (France and Germany), he advises on EU, German, French and multi-jurisdictional merger control and antitrust.
He specialises in merger control, abuse-of-dominance and distribution strategies under European, German and French competition law.
Bertrand is known for his significant experience in the tech, ad tech, media & advertising, new media, e-commerce, retail and pharmaceutical sectors. His clients range from US tech giants to European leaders in their respective fields, for example in media, e-commerce and pharma.
Recent clients include the television channels of the CME Group (PPF), Meta Platforms (Facebook), Zalando, Zentiva, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cinven and Advent.
Bertrand has been recognised as a 'Future Leader' by clients and peers every year since the very first 2017 edition of 'Who's Who Legal - Competition: Future Leaders' (Who's Who Legal/Global Competition Review).
He is both a qualified lawyer and a business school graduate (Grande Ecole, MSc in Management).
Bertrand speaks English, German and a bit of Portuguese in addition to his native French.
Bertrand is also a representative of Halo, Freshfields' LGBTQ+ network.
Recent work
- Advising Meta Platforms (Facebook) on the French competition authority's investigation related to the advertising technology sector, closed without any finding of infringement via negotiated commitments.
- Advising various Eastern and Central European TV channels of CME (PPF-owned; formerly Time Warner-owned) on general commercial issues.
- Advising Maersk on its approx. €1bn attempted sale of Maersk Container Industry to China International Marine Containers Ltd., which was subject to in-depth review by the German competition authority and the US Department of Justice.
- Advising Advent on its €1.9bn acquisition of Zentiva, the previous European generics business of Sanofi, and Zentiva’s subsequent acquisition of the entire CEE business of Alvogen.
- Advising Zalando on various e-commerce, distribution and platform topics.
- Advising Cinven and its portfolio company Viridium group on its acquisitions of the German life insurance activities of Generali Lebensversicherung (4 million policies) and life insurance portfolios of Zurich.
- Advising Boehringer Ingelheim on its €22.8bn swap deal with Sanofi relating to the companies' respective consumer healthcare and animal health businesses.
- Advising Cinven/Host Europe Group on numerous acquisitions in the Internet hosting sector as well as the €1.69bn sale of Host Europe Group to GoDaddy.
- Advising Daimler on its acquisition of Tognum by Engine Holding, a joint venture of Daimler and Rolls-Royce, by way of a public tender offer.
- Advising other clients including Axel Springer, ABB, Aryzta, Mars and LVMH/Groupe Arnault.
Qualifications
Education
- University Paris II Panthéon-Assas, France (Master II degree in European business law)
- Universities of Paris I and Paris XIII, France (law)
- EM Lyon Business School, France (Master of Science in Management/Diplôme Grande Ecole in business administration)
Professional qualifications
- French-qualified lawyer (avocat à la cour, Paris chamber)
- German-qualified lawyer (Rechtsanwalt, Berlin chamber)
Professional memberships
- Member of Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht, an association of German-speaking competition lawyers