George Whittingham

About George Whittingham

George is an associate in Freshfields’ antitrust, competition and trade practice group.

George is based in London and during his time at Freshfields has also spent six months on secondment to a market-leading, multinational technology company.

George trained at Freshfields and during his time at the firm has covered various aspects of UK and EU competition law, including merger control, foreign investment, and behavioural matters.  In particular, George has advised on:

• both UK and EU merger control reviews (including parallel Phase II referals in the UK and EU);
• CMA IEO compliance;
• third-party interventions in merger control processes;
• strategic transactional assessments and antitrust risk profiling; and
• with respect to FDI, assessments and notifications under the UK National Security and Investment Act.

George has assisted in the coordination of merger control and FDI reviews across jurisdictions.

Recent work

George's experience includes advising:

• Medivet and CVC Capital Partners in relation to the CMA’s merger control investigations into 17 completed acquisitions by Medivet, ultimately assuaging the CMA’s concerns in respect of 6 completed acquisitions and successfully divesting of a number of acquired practices to CMA approved purchasers in lieu of an in-depth Phase 2 reference (including the delivery of a “clear cut” reconstitution remedy at Phase 1).  
• Cargotec Corporation on its proposed merger with Konecranes in the cargo handling industry to create a combined group with sales of EUR 7bn, involving the first parallel phase 2 review of a transaction by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission, subsequently abandoned after the CMA issued a prohibition decision rejecting the remedy proposal which had been accepted by the European Commission.
• London Stock Exchange Group on its successful USD 27bn transformational acquisition of Refinitiv, a financial information, data, and analytics provider which required merger control reviews by 20 antitrust authorities worldwide, including in-depth merger reviews in the EU and US, as well as foreign investment reviews in several jurisdictions.
• RELX Group on various strategic transactions for its Legal and Risk business divisions.
• A multinational technology company on its successful acquisition of a credit analytics fintech company before the UK CMA, and additionally on other strategic acquisitions in the high-tech sectors. 
• A multinational digital technology company on the newly enacted EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), including its ongoing global compliance preparation with the DMA.  
• A third party on its interventions in the parallel phase 2 reviews by the CMA and the European Commission in relation to the proposed USD 40bn acquisition by NVIDIA of Arm, which was subsequently abandoned by the parties following regulatory difficulties.
• A third party on its interventions in the parallel phase 2 reviews by the CMA and the European Commission in relation to the acquisition by Broadcom of VMware, which required the parties to provide a technology access remedy to preserve interoperability.
• Entain plc on its CAD 300m acquisition of Avid Gaming, the owner of the Sports Interaction brand, and on a number of further strategic acquisitions to drive Entain's growth strategy.  
• A technology company on various competition matters, spanning: merger control reviews; foreign direct investment assessments; and general competition advisory.
• A consumer goods company on the acquisition of a majority stake in its brand by a leading, multinational business.
• JD Sports on its successful appeals in the Competition Appeal Tribunal against the CMA's decision to prohibit the completed acquisition of Footasylum and the imposition of a fine by the CMA for breach of a hold separate order.