Astrid Ablasser-Neuhuber is a partner with bpv Hügel Rechtsanwälte in Vienna and Brussels and head of the competition law department. She has been practicing EC competition law in Vienna and Brussels since 1998 and is representing national and international clients in antitrust and merger cases before the Austrian and European competition authorities and in proceedings before the European Courts. Astrid graduated from the University of Salzburg, where she also obtained a degree in journalism and French. She gained profound experience in merger control and antitrust law while working with several antitrust authorities (stage/European Commission, Merger Task Force, legal assistant to the president of the Austrian Cartel Court in Vienna). Following her doctoral theses she worked in the competition department of Linklaters, London and joined Hügel & Partner in 1998.

Astrid is president of the Competition Law Commission of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), member of the board of Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht E.V., member of the board of the Austrian Federation for the Protection of Intellectual Property, member of the International Bar Association (IBA), the Vienna Bar Association and the International League of Competition Law (LIDC). She is author of numerous books and articles on Austrian and European antitrust and merger control law, inter alia: Co-author with Loewenheim, Riesenkampff, Meessen, ‘Kommentar zum gesamten europäischen Kartellrecht’, C.H. Beck Verlag 2005, reprint 2009; ‘Medienmarkt und Fusionskontrolle’ (Media markets and European merger control), Kölner Schriften zum Europarecht, Band 42.