Christopher Thomas

Christopher Thomas

Office Managing Partner Global Regulatory

Brussels

+32 2 505 0929

[email protected]

Languages

English, French

Christopher Thomas

Overview
Experience
Credentials
Insights and events

Christopher Thomas is a key contributor to Hogan Lovells' reputation as an excellent choice to handle digital or technology sector competition matters. He advises on appeals against EC decisions and handles private enforcement actions.
Chambers Global 2023

Christopher Thomas assists clients in investigations of alleged anti-competitive conduct, and in merger control procedures, in the European Union and around the world. This includes coordinating the defence of competition law investigations across Europe and globally. Christopher also appears regularly as an advocate before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the EU.

Christopher's work has involved a wide variety of industries, such as air cargo, beverage alcohol, consumer electronics, credit ratings, electronic components, fast-moving consumer goods, financial services, freight-forwarding, logistics, maritime transport, medical devices, metal production plants, metal trading, mobile devices, motor vehicles, paper, pharmaceuticals, railway services, software, surgical instruments, thermal power generation, telecoms services, video games and wind turbines.

That said, Christopher has particular experience of the antitrust issues affecting industries in which technology, data and intellectual property are critical. He has been closely involved in many of the leading cases in this area, whether relating to interoperability, the enforcement of standard essential patents, patent ambush, geo-blocking, performing rights licensing, digital advertising, online search, privacy, platforms, anti-piracy TPMs or any number of other issues.

Clients say that Christopher Thomas is "fantastic to work with" and is "very good at taking a legal concept and bringing it down to a hands-on, pragmatic level." He advises multinational clients on behavioural investigations carried out by the EC, as well as merger control procedures.
Chambers Global 2021

Representative experience

Acting for Google in its antitrust regulatory dialogue with the CMA and the ICO on Google's Privacy Sandbox proposals to remove third-party cookies on Chrome and develop privacy-centric alternatives

Advising implementers of standards such as GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, LTE, AMR-WB, H.264, HEVC, xDSL and WiFi on licence negotiations and litigation across Europe, as well as in arbitration claims

Acting for Google challenging the European Commission's Google Shopping decision on alleged self-preferencing in Google Search before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the EU

Acting for Unilever Italia before the Court of Justice of the EU, challenging the failure by the Italian Competition Authority to consider an as-efficient competitor defence for exclusivity agreements

Acting for Orlen before the European Commission and the EU Courts, remedying the exclusionary destruction by Lithuanian Railways of the track connecting Orlen's refinery with the Latvian rail network

Securing merger approvals around the world for the creation of Primetals Technologies, integrating the metal production plant building businesses of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Siemens

Defending a Japanese electronic component manufacturer in the European Commission's capacitors cartel investigation, as well as before the General Court of the EU

Acting for Novell in the European Commission proceedings against Microsoft for abusing its dominance by restricting server interoperability, and intervening before the General Court of the EU