Merger control successfully completed: Gleiss Lutz advises PHOENIX on the acquisition of McKesson’s European business

​Gleiss Lutz has successfully advised PHOENIX Pharmahandel GmbH & Co KG in the merger control proceedings for the acquisition of large parts of the Continental European business of US pharmaceutical distributor McKesson. Following a lengthy and intense pre-notification, the European Commission already approved the transaction for Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Lithuania on 30 March 2022 without conditions; together with the French law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel, Gleiss Lutz has now also obtained clearance for the part of the transaction referred to the French authorities. 

After the French competition authority (Autorité de la Concurrence) requested the European Commission (this being only the fourth time this has happened in its history) to partially refer the case to it pursuant to Article 9 ECMR for an examination of the national competition effects of the transaction in relation to France, it cleared the acquisition on 30 September 2022, subject to a behavioural commitment limited to the Saint-Etienne market area. After a complex and in-depth legal and competition economic analysis, the French competition authority took into account the specific legal framework governing the functioning of the pharmaceutical distribution market in France and the importance of the bargaining power of the pharmacy purchasing groups, which outweighed the sometimes high market shares in the individual market areas.

As lead counsel, a Gleiss Lutz team around Dr Rainer Loges (partner, Munich) and Dr Martin Schockenhoff (of counsel, Stuttgart, both lead, both M&A) advised PHOENIX comprehensively on the transaction and coordinated the work of the various law firms in the different European jurisdictions.

Dr Matthias Karl (partner) and Dr Philipp Pichler (counsel, both Competition/Antitrust, Stuttgart) were responsible for the merger control proceedings before the European Commission, the multijurisdictional coordination (including the FDI proceedings) as well as all the other antitrust aspects of the transaction. The other members of the team were Dr Patrick Grüner (counsel), Dr Lukas Aberle, Dr Alexandra Bruch, Dr Daniela Drixler, Dr Juliane Langguth, Philipp Drixler, Tim Seiter (all Stuttgart) as well as Dr Harald Weiß (counsel), Dr Miloš Kocí (both Brussels) and Dr Ilaria de Lisa (Munich, all Antitrust). Before the French competition authority, Gleiss Lutz worked very closely with a team from Gide Loyrette Nouel led by Dimitri Dimitrov (partner) and Charles Terdjman (counsel).

PHOENIX Pharmahandel was represented in-house by Olaf Teichert (Director Corporate Legal) and Daniel Schneider (Senior Legal Counsel).