About Wolfgang

Wolfgang is a competition law expert in the Maddocks Corporate & Commercial team. Wolfgang has extensive expertise in all aspects of competition law, with a particular focus on mergers and joint ventures, cartels, exclusivity and distribution arrangements, misuse of market power conduct and competition law audits and compliance. This includes representing domestic and international clients in large ACCC investigations relating to cartel conduct and other competition law matters.

Wolfgang has particular experience in global and cross-border merger and cartel cases and regularly advises multinational corporations and their overseas anti-trust advisors on obtaining ACCC clearance for complex merger proposals and managing ACCC investigations including applications for cartel immunity.

Prior to relocating to Australia, Wolfgang practised European and German competition law for over 5 years in Dusseldorf and Brussels with two leading international anti-trust law practices (Freshfields and Sherman & Sterling) gaining substantial experience with the mandatory pre-merger notification regimes in the EU and Germany. He is therefore uniquely equipped to advise Australian and overseas clients on the new mandatory merger control regime which will come into effect in Australia on 1 January 2026 and assist them with obtaining ACCC approval for their notifiable acquisitions under the new regime from 1 July 2025 onwards.

Wolfgang is a dual-qualified lawyer and is admitted to practice in Australia and Germany. He has continuously been listed in the “Who’s Who Legal: Competition” and the “Who’s Who Legal in Australia and New Zealand” since 2014 and in the “Best Lawyers for Competition Law” since 2016.

Experience

• Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Obtaining ACCC clearance for Bayer AG’s US$63 billion acquisition of Monsanto Company.

  • Advising Continental AG in relation to its global acquisitions of Veyance Technologies Inc and Trelleborg’s printing solutions business.

  • Advising Looker Data Sciences Inc. in relation the acquisition of it by Google LLC.

  • Advising institutional investors and other stakeholders in relation to major acquisitions in Australia, including recently, Brookfield’s proposed acquisition of Origin Energy.

  • Acting for the ACCC in relation to the merger authorisation and subsequent third party challenge in the Australian Competition Tribunal regarding the amalgamation of the three Australian payment systems Bpay, eftpos and NPPA.

  • Assisting the ACCC with several merger reviews in the financial services, medical products and mining equipment industries.
• Cartels
  • Assisting large multi-national corporations with immunity applications to ACCC relating to price fixing, market allocation and other collusive conduct in the agricultural equipment, consumer product, freight forwarding and industrial equipment sectors.
• Competition law compliance and audits
  • Designing bespoke competition law compliance programs and conducting competition law compliance training for domestic and international corporations in the agricultural equipment, automotive, automotive components, construction, energy, food, freight forwarding, industrial equipment, manufacturing devices and professional services industries.

  • Conducting competition law audits and risk assessments for major multinational corporations the in automotive and food industries.

  • Designing bespoke consumer law compliance program and conducting consumer law compliance training for international corporation in the online consumer product sector.
• Other competition law matters
  • Advising energy companies on joint venture and other collaboration arrangements, including Beach Energy, Cooper Energy and 3D Oil, among others.

  • Advising multinational corporations on their brick & mortar and online distribution arrangements in Australia.

  • Acting for the National Competition Council in relation to an access application by the NSW Minerals Council regarding the Port of Newcastle and subsequent appeal to the Australian Competition Tribunal.