Tom R. Selwyn Sharpe

Tom Selwyn Sharpe’s practice covers all aspects of U.K., EU and international competition law, including multijurisdictional merger control, antitrust compliance, abuse of dominance, cartel investigations, dawn raids, state aid and wider EU litigation.

Mr. Selwyn Sharpe has been involved in several high-profile and complex transactions requiring antitrust clearance before the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), European Commission (EC) and around the world. He also has represented clients in litigation before European courts and counsels clients on matters involving compliance programs. Mr. Selwyn Sharpe recently completed an extended secondment to the CMA, during which time he worked on a number of key Phase I and Phase II merger investigations.

He has recently advised on several high-profile global merger control matters, including:

• Activision Blizzard Inc. on its pending $75 billion acquisition by Microsoft Corporation. This is the largest-ever technology deal and the largest-ever gaming industry deal
• Toto Wolff, an Austrian investor, on competition aspects of the extension of his tenure as team boss and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd., the company operating the Mercedes Formula 1 team
• NCR Corporation on its US$1.7 billion acquisition of Cardtronics plc
• Electronic Arts Inc. on the antitrust aspects of its US$1.2 billion recommended cash offer for Codemasters Group Holdings plc.
• Stryker Corporation on its $5.4 billion acquisition of Wright Medical Group N.V.
• WABCO Holdings Inc. on its $7 billion acquisition by ZF Friedrichshafen AG
• Esterline Technologies Corporation on its US$4 billion acquisition by TransDigm Group Incorporated
• ABB Ltd with the antitrust aspects of its US$2.6 billion acquisition of the industrial solutions business of General Electric Company

Mr. Selwyn Sharpe also has extensive experience in EU litigation and EU state aid matters, including advising:

• Dyson before EU courts challenging labeling regulations favoring competing vacuum cleaners. This case was named an Impact Case of the Year at the Benchmark Litigation 2020 Europe Awards
• interveners in the Google Android appeal pending before the EU General Court
• Victaulic Europe on its appeal against the EC’s negative state aid decision in connection with the Belgian “excess profit” ruling corporate tax regime
• Kingfisher in connection with the EC’s state aid investigation into the group financing exemption in the U.K.’s former Controlled Foreign Company rules