Daniel Vowden

Daniel advises international clients on the full spectrum of EU and UK competition law matters and in relation to foreign direct investment controls, including approvals under the UK National Security and Investment Act.  

Daniel has acted on complex and challenging UK merger control cases and many high-profile, cross-border deals requiring regulatory approval in Brussels and worldwide. Daniel's transactional expertise is balanced with in-depth experience of behavioural and advisory matters, including EU and UK cartel investigations, with a particular focus on the pharmaceuticals, financial services, mining, TMT and retail sectors. 

Daniel speaks regularly at antitrust conferences in Brussels and London and has been published in a range of specialist journals, receiving a nomination in the 2022 Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards.  He is a contributor to Global Competition Review's guide on EU foreign direct investment rules and the editor of Herbert Smith Freehills' quarterly update on EMEA-wide cartel developments, Cartel Intel, available here. As a member of the European Competition Law Forum, a group of senior lawyers that engage with high-ranking officials at the European Commission and national agencies, Daniel has led or contributed to policy papers on the UK hold separate merger rules, EU proposed controls on foreign subsidies and reforms to the application of Article 22 EU Merger Regulation.  

Daniel's experience includes advising:

• AerCap Holdings on its US$30 billion offer for GE Capital Aviation Services, including advice on EU and international merger control and foreign direct investment filings.  This deal was shortlisted in the 2022 Global Competition Review Awards as one of the international mergers of the year.
• a confidential intergovernmental agency on cooperative arrangements relating to data and cloud computing infrastructure services, providing advice on an array of behavioural issues
• AbbVie on its US$63bn acquisition of Allergan, one of the largest M&A deals announced worldwide in 2019, with clearance subject to commitments negotiated with the European Commission
• Bauer Media on a series of transformative acquisitions made in the UK commercial radio sector which were subject to in-depth Phase 2 investigation by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, with clearance conditional on a set of complex behavioural remedies
• an international retail trade association on a range of antitrust compliance issues and protocols for information sharing among association members
• Weir Group on numerous complex merger matters, including the recent US$405 million disposal of its Oil and Gas business division in 2020 and the sale in 2019 of its flow-control business, with both deals subject to merger control and foreign direct investment clearances in numerous jurisdictions
• a leading investment bank on the European Commission' s investigation into alleged foreign exchange rate manipulation.
• Canada Pension Planning Investment Board on EU merger control approval for joint venture arrangements in the financial services sector
• Elementis on its US$600 million acquisition of mining company Mondo Minerals
• EDF on complex competition and regulatory aspects of its landmark development of the UK's first new nuclear power plant for a generation, Hinckley Point C