Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP has a comprehensive EU and competition practice, which offers support in cartel investigations, leniency applications, merger control, antitrust litigation, and sanctioning proceedings. The group is turned to by a growing client roster, which is made up of notable companies active across a variety of sectors, including technology, retail, and insurance. Practice head Henar González Durántez is praised by clients for her ‘extraordinary ability to understand the complex technical and regulatory aspects’ of dawn raids, cartels, and investigations. She is also well-versed in merger control and compliance issues, with a particular focus on the energy, digital markets, and consumer products sectors. Pilar Carrasco is active in merger control and antitrust investigations.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction: Lawyer & team quality
Client satisfaction: NPS ®
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- ‘Henar González Durántez is an excellent professional who combines her high technical quality with an unbeatable way of communicating with the client.’
- ‘It's a small team and therefore very well coordinated. The contact is very direct, and you don't speak to a new lawyer every day who's unfamiliar with your case. The team is very stable.’
- ‘I would highlight Henar González Durántez and Pilar Carrasco's superb preparation, their ability to resolve all issues raised, their effort to understand the business, their dedication to the assigned work, their personalised and attentive service, and their availability whenever needed. For us, they are clearly better than their competitors.’
- ‘This firm is highly efficient, supplements documentation with diverse case law, and prepares legal briefs with a clear business focus.’
- ‘They stand out for their high availability and, above all, their great understanding of our business.’
- ‘The support received from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP on competition matters has been excellent in terms of the quality of the analysis, the availability, and the quick response of the team.’
Key clients
- Sanitas
- Meta
- Rheinmetall
- Grupo Gallardo Balboa
- PE6
- CAF
Work highlights
Represented Meta Platforms in the complaints filed before the Spanish Mercantile Courts by 87 Spanish news media companies and 10 Spanish commercial television and radio companies, alleging that Meta has infringed the Spanish Unfair Competition Act as a result of alleged infringements of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Spanish Competition Act.
Represented Rheinmetall in the appeal before the Spanish National Court against the CNMC sanctioning decision by which it imposed on Rheinmetall two fines amounting to €13m for the provision to the CNMC of incorrect and misleading information in the context of the merger control proceedings of its acquisition of the Spanish entity Expal.
Advised PE6 on the merger control filing related to the acquisition of Mentalia.
Lawyers
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Practice head
Henar González Durántez
Other key lawyers
Pilar Carrasco; Gonzalo Sanz-Magallón