Biography: Competition

Dr Markus Wirtz is partner at Glade Michel Wirtz, a German law firm focusing exclusively on competition and corporate work.

Markus has advised companies in cartel investigations concerning, thread, insurance, chemicals, concrete pipes, mortar, railtrack technology, food packaging, meat, power transformers, sanitary fittings, luxury cosmetics, drug store goods, pet food, confectionery, flour, coffee and pharmaceuticals. He is experienced in internal audits and multiple leniency filings, and has acted in a number of cases before the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office.

Markus has also conducted international merger control filings for Fortis Investments, HypoVereinsbank, Kerry, MPC Capital, Tognum or United Internet (1&1, gmx, web.de); represented clients such as ASUS Computers, Canon, Epson, Eurobaustoff, Kyocera, Medion, Xerox or the German Accountants Institute (IDW) in various antitrust litigation; and structured and drafted agreements for exclusive or selective distribution for Dyson, Electronic Arts, Mettler Toledo and others.

He has published numerous articles on antitrust and merger control law, and contributes the chapter on dominance to the Handbook of European Competition Law (Mäger) in German and the chapter on technology transfer to the Handbook of German and European Competition Law (Lange) in German. He is a frequent speaker on EU and German competition law.

Markus Wirtz studied law and economics at the University of Bayreuth. He holds an LLM in European Law from the University of Nottingham School of Law, and was awarded a doctorate from the University of Bayreuth. Prior to his admission to the bar he had worked as an intern, inter alia, for the German Monopolies Commission. Markus Wirtz developed an efficiency test in his doctoral thesis on the European merger control regulation in 2001. This efficiency test was introduced in 2004 in the horizontal merger guidelines of the European Commission.

He receives accolades as a leading competition lawyer in a number of publications, for example, in Chambers Europe, 2011: 'Sources regard department head Markus Wirtz as a creative and business-oriented lawyer, stating that 'he's a rising star' who 'provides high-level critical advice''; WirtschaftsWoche, October 2011 (Germany's top 25 recommended antitrust lawyers), and JUVE German Commercial Law Firms, 2012 (where he was named an up-and-coming competition partner).

Markus Wirtz is a member of the Düsseldorf bar, German Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht and the International Bar Association.

The opening of Glade Michel Wirtz in 2007 was recognised by the legal press as a "major move" in the German market. It attracted coverage in Global Competition Review, Legal 500 and The Lawyer. The firm focuses on complex matters requiring specialised skills and experience.