Homburger

Switzerland

As the first firm to establish a Swiss competition practice in the 1960s, HOMBURGER is the country’s top competition practice. Franz Hoffet continues to lead the Zürich-based team along with deputy head Marcel Dietrich. The team has two counsel – Martin Thomann and Andreas Burger – and seven associates within the firm’s combined competition and regulation teams. The team prides itself in its legacy of firsts, including Switzerland’s first-ever leniency application, the Competition Commission’s first dawn raid and the agency’s first-ever sanction procedure.

The firm is active in many of the high-profile behavioural cases brought forth by Switzerland’s Competition Commission in 2017. Dietrich continues to advise UBS in the Libor and Forex investigations – easily the largest investigations the Swiss enforcer has ever handled.

In a country with high transactional notification thresholds, Homburger’s practice is involved in some of Switzerland’s most significant deals. Dietrich advised chemicals company Clariant in its global merger with Huntsman, valued at approximately €17 billion; the deal collapsed in late 2017. In turn, Hoffet advised Swiss building technology company Wolseley in the merging of its subsidiary Tobler Haustechnik with competitor Walter Meier.