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Christian Wik

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+358 40 769 8215

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Biography

Christian will join Geradin Partners as of 21 October 2024. 

Christian is one of the leading competition law experts in Finland. He began his practice in 1986 at Roschier Attorneys, dealing with private and public M&A transactions as well as litigation. With Finland’s accession to the EU, the focus of his practice shifted to EU and competition law and he built a large practice group in this field at Roschier covering Finland, Sweden and the EU.  

During the last 25 years he has handled large cartel investigation and procedures as well as important assessments of the conduct of dominant companies both in the Nordic countries and Brussels. He has also worked extensively with competition law issues relating to all kind of transactions and handled numerous merger control notifications and investigations in Finland and the EU, including many conditionally approved transactions. More recently, he has also handled FDI notifications and procedures in Finland. 

Christian has also worked on several large international compliance investigations, in which legal risks of companies have been examined and managed in close cooperation with the management and Board of the companies. In addition, he has throughout his career drafted and negotiated various agreements, such as Shareholders’, Distribution and Agency Agreements, mainly relating to competition law issues therein. 

Over the span of three decades, Christian worked as a partner at Roschier whereafter he has worked at Edelle Attorneys until joining Geradin Partners. 

Christian has for years been ranked Band 1 in Finland in Competition/European Law by Chambers Europe and was recently lifted as the exclusive practitioner in this field to Senior Statesperson (2023). He is also recognized as a leading expert in competition by other major international legal directories such as The Legal 500 (Hall of Fame) and Who’s Who Legal (2024), where he also is noted as a Global Leader in Competition (2023). 
 
According to clients, Christian is “very competent in competition law issues” (Chambers Europe, 2023) and “an outstanding expert in competition law who provides to-the-point advice” (Chambers Europe, 2018). Clients also point out that he is “widely renowned for his expertise and is particularly noted in the market for international work” (Chambers Europe, 2020). Clients further describe him as a “good litigator, with long-standing experience in Finland” (Chambers Europe, 2019). 

Experience

  • Cartel proceedings and investigations in Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the EU and the US, eight of which proceeded to the relevant courts. 
  • Dominance investigations in Finland, Sweden and the EU, six of which proceeded to court or authority decisions. 
  • Some 50-60 merger control filings in Finland and the EU as well as multi-jurisdictionally, with some 15-20 phase II cases, many of which including large remedy packages. 
  • Numerous compliance assessments and internal audits, including risk assessments and related legal actions, many of which were conducted in large companies with global operations. 
  • Dawn raid assistance to companies in Finland and certain other EU countries in some 12-15 cartel, dominance and (Finnish) merger control investigations. 
  • Self-assessment of competition law relating to vertical (and horizontal) relations in distribution and agency networks, horizontal aspects of joint-venture and cooperation arrangements as well as information exchange issues generally (including interlocking directorates). 
  • Several follow-on and partly stand-alone damage claims in Finland and the Netherlands based on cartel conduct and abuse of dominance. 
  • FDI assessments and notifications in Finland. 

Education

  • LL.M., University of Helsinki (1984) 
  • LL.M., Southern Methodist University, Dallas (1985) 
  • Trained on the Bench, Finland (1986) 

Admission

Member of the Finnish Bar Association 

Languages

Swedish, Finnish, English and conversational German 

Publications and speaking engagements

  • Articles on various EU and competition law issues in Finnish, Swedish and European publications, such as JFT, Defensor Legis, Europarättslig Tidskrift, Lexology, GCR and Concurrences. 
  • Finnish and EU competition law handbook “Kilpailuoikeus” (Alkio – Wik), Talentum, 2009. 
  • Numerous speaking engagements on public and private competition law enforcement in Finland and other European countries at seminars arranged by e.g., IBA, GCR, informa connect, Lakimiesliitto and Hanken School of Economics.