Thomas Funke

Thomas Funke is the co-head of the international competition practice at Osborne Clarke. Resolving disputes and creating opportunities, he advises on antitrust litigation, mergers and investigations.

In the European Court of Justice and the German Supreme Court, Thomas obtained ground-breaking decisions in Hydrogen Peroxide (C-352/13), Akzo v Commission (T-345/12), CDC v Commission (T-437/08) and the BGH Coffee Roaster litigation. He represents Deutsche Bahn in one of the largest follow-on actions against the members of the European trucks cartel. Thomas is the Vice Chair of Germany’s Competition Litigation Forum e.V. and a Steering Committee Member of the Cambridge Forum for European Competition Litigation.

The European Commission retained Thomas to defend its E.ON/Innogy and RWE/E.ON merger clearances against third-party challenges in the European Court of Justice. He secured merger clearances for several multi-billion transactions in the energy, retail, technology and life sciences sectors.

Thomas successfully defended industry leaders in antitrust investigations, including a global automotive component supplier, a leading German retail group and a digital champion from North America. Thomas also represented leniency recipients and negotiated settlements.

Thomas is a recognised antitrust expert for the automotive sector. He has also counselled multinational corporations on EU distribution strategies, compliance and digital antitrust.