Christian Karhula Lauridsen > Plesner > Copenhagen, Denmark > Lawyer Profile

Christian Karhula Lauridsen

+45 29 99 30 83 [email protected]

Work Department

EU and Competition Law; Litigation

Position

Christian is a partner in Plesner’s EU and Competition Law team, and he has extensive experience in the most complex and largest competition law investigations and litigation matters involving cartels, abuses, and damages.

Together with the team, Christian was the first in Denmark to file negative declaratory actions (“torpedoes”) in competition-related cases and the only one in Denmark to have practical experience with both the European Commission’s leniency programme and settlement procedure.

According to international ranking firms, Christian is considered by clients to be “top-notch for complicated issues,” a “strategic mastermind,”  “extremely analytical and straightforward,” and “particularly strong on complex investigations, where every stone needs to be turned.” He “thinks outside the box,”  “has great business acumen,”  and “is brilliant, always convincing, and extremely impressive in the courtroom” (Chambers and Legal 500).

Christian holds a combined Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Copenhagen and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, as well as a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in competition law, EU law, and IP law from the University of Cambridge (Jesus College).

He served as an associate professor at Copenhagen Business School after receiving a secondment to work at Carlsberg’s group secretariat. Christian has served as chairman of the Danish Competition Law Society. He is admitted to the Supreme Court of Denmark.

Plesner’s EU and Competition Law team consists of highly specialised lawyers and economists, some with experience from previous employment with the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority, the Danish Public Prosecutor’s Department, Danish Courts, the Ministry of Justice, the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement, and the corporate sector.

The team has a conscious focus on both a deep commercial understanding of the client’s needs and genuine teamwork while constantly challenging conceptions, methods, and analyses.

Career

Christian Karhula Lauridsen is a specialist in complex litigation and other contentious matters.

According to international ranking firms, Christian is considered by clients to be “top-notch for complicated issues” and a “strategic mastermind“. Sources say that he is “extremely analytical and straightforward” and “particularly strong on complex investigations, where every stone needs to be turned“. He “thinks outside the box“, “has great business acumen“, and “is brilliant, always convincing, and extremely impressive in the courtroom“. (Chambers and Legal 500)

In his early career, Christian was involved in a broad range of litigation matters and investigations ranging from the Supreme Court case concerning the compatibility of the Danish membership of EU with the Danish constitution, the arbitration cases regarding the construction of the Great Belt Bridge (the third longest suspension bridge in the World), and the comprehensive investigation in the Faroese banking case involving examination of more than 70 politicians, public servants and businesspeople, to a number of important EU cases regarding parallel import and registration of pharmaceuticals.

According to Chambers, Christian is “one of the best competition practitioners in the market“. He has extensive experience in complex competition law investigations and litigation matters, as evidenced most recently by his victory in the more than 15-year long excessive pricing case for Ørsted – the largest and most significant competition law complex of cases ever in Denmark. He succeeded in having the relevant decisions from the Danish Competition Council, the Danish Competition Appeals Tribunal and the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court overturned in their entirety; the first time this was achieved where it was not due to a preliminary ruling from the ECJ.

He also represented Danfoss in the largest ever cartel related damages case complex in Denmark and was the first to file negative declaratory actions (“torpedoes”), which had not previously been used in Denmark in competition related cases. He has also represented other Danish companies in some of the largest ever EU cartel cases involving Danish companies. Christian and his colleagues in Plesner are the only ones in Denmark having practical experience with both the European Commission’s leniency programme and settlement procedure.

Christian has a combined Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Copenhagen and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven as well as a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in competition law, EU law and IP law from the University of Cambridge (Jesus College). He was seconded to work at the group secretariat of Carlsberg and has been an associated professor at Copenhagen Business School. Christian is the chairman of the Danish Competition Law Society.