We continue to grow and strengthen our team with outstanding talent. As of July 1, 2025, Christopher Wolters and Leonard Freiherr von Rummel will become partners; Ramona Ader, Laura Louca and Philipp Trube will join the counsel ranks. With these promotions, we foster continuous, organic growth and strong individual development opportunities for all career levels across all practice groups.

Two months after the European Commission published its Competitiveness Compass, we take a deeper look into its strategic vision to enhance the EU’s economic resilience and global competitiveness (following up on our first overview), namely the competi-tion law aspects. The Commission is rather clear that it seeks to establish Europe’s competitiveness as the new “North Star”. However, what is not so clear: Through which paths will the Commission lead us on our journey to this North Star?

The European defence industry is undergoing profound strategic transformation. Just last week, the Commission has published its White Paper for European Defence Readiness 2030, attesting “changes of a magnitude not seen since 1945” and boldly stating: “History will not forgive us for inaction.” This shift has also been felt in competition law. Recent policy discussions suggest that the traditional approach to competition enforcement — focusing primarily on market dynamics and consumer welfare — may evolve to incorporate additional considerations, in particular defence interests.

After the Oscar-worthy performance in its opening act, the DMA series is back with a brand-new season, packed with twists, turns, and regulatory cliffhangers. On March 19, 2025, the European Commission stepped into the spotlight with two decisive moves: First, it handed Apple a script rewrite, demanding new specified measures to meet interoperability obligations under the DMA. Second, it preliminarily found Alphabet in breach of the DMA by self-preferencing in Google Search and enforcing restrictive steering rules in Google Play.

BLOMSTEIN, together with lindenpartners, supported DiliTrust, a leading CLM provider in Europe, on its acquisition of the legal tech startup PACTA. The BLOMSTEIN team, led by Roland Stein and Anna Huttenlauch, advised on investment control and merger control aspects of this transaction.

With trade war between China and the US on the doorsteps, implications for EU companies will be manyfold. One possible consequence could be heavily subsidised Chinese products flooding the EU market. Particularly for medical devices, there is an increased probability that this might happen. However, such a development would not meat European companies defenceless.

With the start of 2025, the European Union has entered a new phase of technology regulation. Over the recent past, AI competition policy has already undergone significant shifts, with increased scrutiny on Big Tech investments, ‘acqui-hires’ being treated as mergers, and growing concerns over algorithmic collusion. This is the scene that Teresa Ribera has stepped foot on as the EU's new competition chief. She has inherited a regulatory framework built on robust AI oversight from her predecessor Margrethe Vestager. However, given that her mandate is broader than just competition enforcement and now includes the ambitious goals of the European Green Deal, the crucial question is: How will Commissioner Ribera's blend of competition oversight and environmental vision shape Europe's AI industry?

New federal parliament elections are due to be held in Germany on 23 February 2025. In light of the multiple international challenges, national security and defence is one of the key issues. This briefing provides an overview of the content of the election manifestos of the main political parties on the topics of the Bundeswehr, its financing and the defence industry.

The European economy is under mounting pressure from China's rapid technological advances and industrial policy, trade uncertainties linked to the new Trump administration in the USA, and growing geopolitical instability, which impact the competitive landscape in several global markets and increase disruption risks in supply chains. In this challenging economic and political climate, enhancing the competitiveness of European businesses and reinforcing the resilience of the Single Market have become key political priorities, as outlined in the European Council's Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal.

The Foreign Subsidies Regulation’s (FSR) concentration and public procurement tool came into force one year ago in October 2023. Its first year of application has shown that the European Commission is determined to make use of its new tools to tackle third-country subsidies distorting competition in the EU internal market. In this briefing, we provide an overview of the most important FSR rules and the lessons learned from their first application.