Prof. Dr. Thomas Höppner is a partner with Geradin Partners. Before joining Geradin Partners in 2025, Thomas was a partner at Hausfeld for ten years. 

With over 20 years of experience, Thomas has advised clients on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious antitrust and regulatory matters. He has assisted clients on numerous high-stake investigations, including some of the most complex cases in the tech, media and network industries. 

Thomas is also a trusted litigator on matters of EU law and private enforcement of competition law and the Digital Markets Act, including large individual and collective damages cases. He has a particularly strong track record of securing preliminary injunctions in time-sensitive competition disputes.  

Naming Thomas as one of the top 10 advisors in antitrust law and the platform economy, according to the legal directory Juve “Höppner is considered one of the leading specialists in competition law and digital regulation – no one in Germany is as strongly associated with the fight against the abuse of market power by large tech companies such as Google and Apple as he is.” 

Thomas is also recognized as one of the top 10 lawyers in media competition law and as a Thought Leader in competition law and competition plaintiff litigation work in Germany by Lexology/Who’s Who Legal.

Thomas holds a PhD and an LL.M., and he was awarded a professorship in business and IP law. He has published six books and over 100 articles, earning him seven nominations for the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards, of which he has won three. 

• Several comparison shopping services in damages actions against Google before German courts, with a total claim of EUR 5 billion
• Group of media companies in large collective action for damages against Google in relation to ad tech 
• NetDoktor (Hubert Burda) with action for injunctive relief against Google and the German Federal Health Ministry
• Corint Media over a range of competition, copyright and DMA-related matters
• German association of advertisers ZAW and six other media associations as complainants in the Bundeskartellamt’s investigation into Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework
• Same group in the EC’s Google AdTech investigation and in the UK’s CMA investigation into Google’ Privacy Sandbox
• Alfaview as complainant in the EC’s Microsoft Teams I and II investigations
• Ladenzeile (idealo/Axel Springer), BDZV and VDZ as complainants in EU investigation Google Search (Shopping) and as interveners before the General Court and the CJEU
• Atolls with action for injunctive relief against new Google Search policies
• Alcube as a complainant against buy-box practices of Amazon in investigation of Bundeskartellamt
• German associations of newspaper publishers (BDZV) over a wide range of competition and regulatory matters, including compliance trainings  
• Open Internet Project as complainant in Google Android investigation
• Qwant and the German press publishers’ associations BDZV/VDZ before the General Court and the CJEU as interveners in the Google Android case
• European Magazine Media Association and European Newspaper Publishers’ Association over a range of competition issues 
• UPS as a complainant before Bundesnetzagentur against pricing policies of Deutsche Post
• BDZV and MVFP in Bundeskartellamt investigation into Google News Showcase
• BDZV as complainant in a State Aid case against a German public broadcaster
• Ecosia over a range of competition and DMA-related matters 
• StepStone over a range of EU and German competition matters 
• DiesbachMedia as complainant against refusal to deal against Google 
• Heureka in damages action following Google Shopping before a Czech court 
• Initiative Urheberrecht on copyright and the AI Act
• UPS on regulatory reforms to open up the postal sector  

• Dr. iur. in Competition Law (Summa Cum Laude), Humboldt University (2009)
• Bar Exam / 2. State Exam, Berlin (2009)
• LL.M. in Competition Law, University of Dundee (2005)
• LL.M / 1. State Exam, Humboldt University (2003)

Germany 

German, English 

• Thomas has authored/co-authored 6 books and 110 book chapters and articles on topics of competition law, IP, digital regulation and private enforcement (see Author Page for Thomas Hoppner :: SSRN)
• Seven nominations for a Concurrences Antitrust Writing Award, winning at three occasions
• Thomas taught as a Lecturer (2011-2016), Visiting Professor at University of Glasgow (201-2018) and Ordinary Professor at Technical University of Wildau (2016-2023) a wide range of topics, including telecoms law, IP law, marketing law, media law, unfair trading practices and international corporate law 
• Thomas has spoken at over 130 conferences on issues of competition law and IP