Jonas Koponen

Jonas advises multinational companies on complex transactions and contentious competition investigations and related dispute resolution. He is a highly regarded international competition lawyer and a recognized leader of the Brussels antitrust bar. Clients value his combination of strategic intelligence and leading-edge advice, curiosity, and flexibility, as well as his depth of commercial understanding. He represents clients in a range of industries, with significant experience in the financial services, life sciences, healthcare, telecommunications, software and information technology sectors. 

Jonas strategically advises his clients on complex M&A, investments, and licensing transactions, including with respect to merger review by the European Commission and other enforcement agencies. He also counsels companies on internal and external investigations of business conduct and related litigation to address allegations of abuse of dominance, anti-competitive agreements and practices, and cartel behavior, including applications for immunity and leniency.

Jonas is a long-standing nongovernmental adviser to the International Competition Network (ICN), and currently advises the European Commission. Jonas lectures in competition law at the Brussels School of Competition and has published extensively on international antitrust law.

Jonas’ representative transaction matters include advising:

• A Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company in relation to its £46 billion recommended offer for a specialty biopharmaceutical company, which was the largest outbound M&A deal by a Japanese company, and securing the first European Commission waiver of a pipeline divestment commitment*
• An American broadcast media company in relation to its $14.6 billion acquisition by an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate*
• An American life sciences and healthcare company on several acquisitions, totaling more than $63 billion*
• A leading power cable and cable accessories supplier on its €836 million acquisition of a high-voltage cables and accessories business*
• A global engineering group on its $1.35 billion acquisition of a company active in agriculture, industrial and specialty tires*
• Two private equity firms in relation to their $4 billion sale of a leading global manufacturer of dialysis devices, to an American multinational healthcare company*
• An American multinational technology corporation on several transactions, including its €1.4 billion public tender offer for an enterprise software provider, a proposed digital rights management joint venture and its acquisition of an internet search and search advertising business*
• A European operator of trading, clearing and settlement platforms on its proposed €19 billion merger with a European company in the cash listing and trading and derivatives trading sectors*
• A Nordic-Baltic banking group on its proposed $6.19 billion merger with a leading Nordic financial services group, which was the first financial services deal reviewed by the European Commission in Phase II*
• A Swedish multinational telecommunications company on its proposed merger with a Norwegian multinational telecommunications company, which was the first merger of European telecoms incumbents reviewed by the European Commission in Phase II*

Jonas’ representative investigation matters include advising:

• An automotive parts company as an immunity applicant in the European Commission’s investigations concerning alternators and starters, thermal products, and spark plugs, forming part of what has been called the “largest cartel investigation in history”*
• A global software company in relation to the European Commission’s investigation into alleged abuses of dominance by Google in relation to internet search and search advertising*
• An investment bank in relation to the European Commission’s power cables investigation and subsequent appeal to the European Courts in relation to alleged parent company liability*
• A global investment bank on its successful defense against the European Commission’s antitrust case concerning credit default swaps*
• Clients in relation to the European Commission’s investigations into hydrogen peroxide, sodium chlorate, aluminum fluoride, feed phosphates, foreign exchange, and oil and ethanol benchmarks*

*Matters handled prior to joining Cooley