Biography: Competition

Mr Buhart concentrates on EU competition rules and mergers and acquisitions. He has handled a broad range of complex competition matters as well as litigations in the European Courts. In the merger field, among others, he represented Canon in its acquisition of OCE (the Netherlands); TotalFina in its acquisition of Elf (second phase); Metsä-Serla in the sale of its carbonless paper division to Arjowiggins (second phase), and in the notification of SCA's acquisition of Metsä Tissue (second phase); AT&T in its acquisition of IBM Global Network and of the public telecommunications equipment business of Philips in Europe; TUI in the merger notification of its acquisition of the tour operator Nouvelles Frontières; and Atos Origin in its acquisition of Banksys. On the litigation side, Mr Buhart represented Cascades in the cartonboard cartel case at the Court of First Instance and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg; Daiichi Pharmaceutical in the vitamins cartel case at the Court of First Instance; as well as Coca-Cola at the Court of Appeal in Paris against allegations of abuse of dominant position. He acted for an intervening party in the Akzo case relating to the legal privilege.

On the compliance side, Mr Buhart advised several international companies in their compliance programme as well as at seminars throughout Europe, such as Metsäliitto and Toyota Motor Corporation.

Among other industries, Mr Buhart has developed a substantial knowledge in antitrust issues affecting the telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries as well as the automobile and paper industries.

Mr Buhart received his legal education from the Sorbonne, Paris, the Hague Academy of International Law, the Institute of Comparative Law, Paris, and the University of Paris, DESS in 1976. He also read for an MBA from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP).

Mr Buhart has been a visiting professor of EU competition law at the University of Aix-en-Provence since 1995 and at the University of Tokyo, faculty of law from 2004 to 2011. He has published widely on topics of EU competition rules and M&A. He was the chairman of the International Bar Association's section on business law from 2001 to 2003.