Rainer Nitsche

Dr. Rainer Nitsche is a managing director in the firm’s Berlin office and an expert in providing economic advice and expert testimony in competition, litigation, regulatory and State aid matters before the European Commission and national competition authorities in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. He has over twenty-five years of experience across competition policy enforcement. He specialises in cartel damages, abuse of dominance and merger control proceedings, including overcharge and damages assessments for claimants and defendants and Phase I and II merger investigations.

Dr. Nitsche conducts overcharge and damages assessments for courts, claimants and defendants in cartel matters in sectors including automotive glass, acoustic and thermal insulation products, bearings, beer, chemicals, cold cuts, de-icing salt, district heating, elevators and escalators, financial products, firefighting vehicles, grocery retail, liquefied petroleum gas, rails, sugar and trucks. He has acted as a court-appointed expert in cartel damage proceedings.

Dr. Nitsche has advised and testified in more than forty merger proceedings, including Novomatic/Casinos Austria, Heidelberg Cement/Italcementi, Telefónica/E-Plus, H3G/O2, Liberty Global/Kabel BW, Strabag/Lafarge, Vattenfall/Nuon, REWE/ADEG and T-Mobile/tele.ring. He has also advised on abuse of dominance and regulatory matters in telecommunications and other network industries and on State aid proceedings for governments and aid recipients. Since 2006, he has regularly acted as a court-appointed expert for the Austrian Cartel Court in merger and abuse proceedings.

Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized Dr. Nitsche in its Competition report and named him Competition Economist of the Year 2024. JUVE ranked him the number one competition economist in Germany in 2023. He also taught digital strategy courses as a faculty member at ESMT Berlin.