Profile details
About Dr. Frank Montag
Clients turn to Frank when they need a competition lawyer with authority, a global reputation and extensive knowledge of the world’s competition law regimes.
Frank draws on over 30 years’ experience to defend his clients’ interests in EU and multijurisdictional competition procedures and investigations.
With increasing intra-agency co-operation in merger and cartel investigations, clients need a globally co-ordinated defence. Frank’s practice has brought him before the European Commission, Germany’s Bundeskartellamt and other key global authorities, including the US DOJ and FTC and China’s Mofcom, in some of the most complex merger transactions and investigations into anti-competitive practices. He is also an experienced litigator before the European courts in Luxemburg.
Frank speaks German, English and French.
Recent work
- Defending clients in the recent cartel investigations of the European Commission regarding block trains and ethylene.
- Advising Siemens on the worldwide merger control proceedings of the proposed transformative combination of Siemens' and Alstom's mobility businesses, which is now widely recognised as a landmark case for the European merger control regime.
- Advising Holcim on the merger control aspects of its $43bn merger of equals with Lafarge and the subsequent divestment of businesses in 15 countries.
- Advising Siemens through one of the very few in-depth phase II merger investigations to close without conditions when it acquired US-based Dresser Rand.
- Advising a third party in the Dow/DuPont merger proceedings.
- Advising a company on its acquisition of significant components of Bayer’s seed and crop protection businesses, which Bayer divested ahead of its planned acquisition of Monsanto.
Qualifications
Education
- United World College of the Atlantic, Wales (IB, 1976)
- University of Bonn, Germany (Dr iur, 1984)
- University of Georgia, US (LLM. 1982)
Additional responsibilities
- Member of the board of editors of Zeitschrift für Wettbewerbsrecht (Journal of Competition Law)
- Non-governmental adviser to the delegations of the European Commission, the US Department of Justice and Germany’s Bundeskartellamt at International Competition Network (ICN) conferences since the formation of the ICN in 2001
- Former Chairman of the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht (the Antitrust Lawyers Association for Germany, Austria and Switzerland) from 2006 to 2018
- Member of Freshfields' partnership council, the firm’s strategy and decision-making body
- Previously managing partner of Freshfields' Brussels office, co-head of the firm's global antitrust, competition and trade group and chair of its finance and risk committee