Athena Kontosakou

Athena is a Partner in Goodwin’s Antitrust & Competition department. She joined Goodwin in 2025. Athena provides legal advice on complex competition law issues. Her practice focuses on all aspects of European and Greek competition law, advising on antitrust, merger control and State aid law issues. Athena’s experience covers a range of industries including technology and telecommunications, financial services, infrastructure and energy. She also advises on matters under the Digital Markets and Digital Services acts regime. Athena appears regularly in proceedings before the European Commission and the European Courts in Luxembourg. As of 2018, Athena is a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University London and publishes frequently on a variety of antitrust topics.

Athena’s recent representative matters include: 

• Slack Technologies/Salesforce: Represented the company in its Complaint against Microsoft’s tying of its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular productivity applications included in its suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365, before the European Commission, sustained by Salesforce after Slack’s acquisition in 2021 (Case AT.40873)*
• Public Power Corporation of Greece: Represents the company in respect of the European Commission’s investigation into PPC’s alleged predatory bidding patterns and pricing practices (Case AT.40278)* 
• Corning: Represented the company in respect of the European Commission investigation into its alleged exclusivity supply arrangements and rebates with mobile phone manufacturers and with companies that process raw glass for its cover glass for electronic devices (Case AT.40728)* 
• WebGroup Czech Republic: Represented the owner of a Very Large Online Platform in appealing the applicability of certain obligations imposed upon it by the Digital Services Acts before the EU Courts and its dealings with DG CNECT (Cases T-139/24 and C-620/24 P(R))* 
• Qualcomm: Represented Qualcomm in its appeal of the decision adopted in Case AT.39711 Qualcomm – predation before the EU Courts(Cases T-671/19 and C-819/24 P)* 
• Qualcomm: Represented Qualcomm in its appeal of the decision adopted by the European Commission in Case AT.40220 (Qualcomm – exclusivity payments) before the General Court, which led to the unprecedented and final annulment of the entire decision imposing an 997 million fine upon Qualcomm (Case T-235/18)* 
• Qualcomm: Represented the company in the European Commission investigation into the alleged leveraging its market position in 5G modem chips in the radio frequency chip market, closed with no action taken* 
• Multinational logistics company: Advised and successfully represented in related arbitration proceedings the company in respect of competition law matters arising in the context of their commercial relationship with a Member State for the exploitation of key infrastructure * 
• Salesforce/Slack: Advised Slack in its 27.7 bn USD acquisition by Salesforce* 
• Qualcomm: Represented Qualcomm in respect of the European Commission’s investigation into Qualcomm’s alleged predatory pricing practices (Case AT.39711 Qualcomm – predation)* 
• Qualcomm: Represented Qualcomm in its appeal of the legality of a Request for Information adopted by the European Commission in the context of case AT.39711 before the General Court (Case T-371/17) and the Court of Justice (Case C-466/19)* 
• Piraeus Bank: Advised the bank on State aid aspects of its EUR 4.9 billion restructuring and recapitalization and provided advice on BRRD related matters*
• Eurobank: Advised on the State aid aspects of its EUR 2.04 billion restructuring and its recapitalization*
• Leading financial institution: Advised in respect of the proposed cap on salary-bonus ratio payable in the banking sector*
• CyTA: Advised the Republic of Cyprus in connection to its intended privatisation of the incumbent telecoms operator, CYTA, mandated by the Economic Adjustment Programme and represented the Republic before Troika*
• State Grid International Development: Advised SGID in connection to its acquisition of a controlling stake in the Greek Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE), mandated by the Greek privatisation programme, including the review of transaction by the European Commission* 
• Qualcomm/NXP: Advised Qualcomm in respect of its Phase II Commission review of Qualcomm’s USD 50 billion acquisition of NXP (Case COMP/M.8306). This matter garnered the award of the merger control matter of the year (2018) by Global Competition Review (GCR)* 
• DEPA: Provided antitrust counseling to the incumbent wholesale supplier of natural gas in Greece on dominance issues in the natural gas and LNG markets* 
• Two European carriers: Advised on competition law issues relating to the proposed merger between the two airlines* 
• Syniverse/MACH: Advised Syniverse in the Phase II Commission review of its acquisition of MACH (Case COMP/M.6690). The acquisition was cleared with limited conditions* 
• Huhtamaki: Advised the company in a cartel investigation launched by the European Commission in the retail food packaging sector*
• Samsung Electronics: Represented Samsung in relation to the European Commission’s investigation into the exercise of certain of its “standard essential” patents. The investigation was concluded without a finding of infringement (Case AT.39939)* 
• Nokia: Represented the mobile telecommunications company in connection with the European Commission’s investigation into the disposal of certain patents to a third non-practicing entity, Mosaid, following a complaint by Google*
• Danaher/Pall: Advised Pall Corporation on its USD 13.8 billion acquisition by Danaher Corporation (Case M.7667)*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin

Prior to joining Goodwin, Athena practiced with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan where she provided legal advice on European competition and regulatory law matters. Before that, she worked for several years at the legacy firm Shearman & Sterling.

Legal 500 ranks Athena as a key lawyer in her field (2024 & 2025) and reports clients stating that she is “pragmatic, solutions oriented, collaborative, experienced and organized.” Athena was also ranked by W@Competition and PaRR in their inaugural “30 in their 30s – Notable Women Competition Professional in their 30s” list.

PUBLICATIONS

• Co-author, “Aid in the Banking Sector,” EU State Aid Control: Law and Economics, Wolters Kluwer, 2025
• Co-author, “Legal Professional Privilege: A Transatlantic Perspective,” Concurrences, Special Edition: Liber Amicorum, James F. Rill, 2024
• Author, “European Antitrust Enforcement in the Digital Era: How It Started, How It’s Going, and the Risks Lying Ahead,” Antitrust Bulletin Vol. 67(4), 2022
• Author, “The EU Digital Markets Act is finally in sight: Goals, roles and (certain) lacunas,” Competition Law Insight, September 2022
• Author, “Internet of Things sector inquiry:Interconnected devices, data and legislative actions,” Competition Law Insight, October 2021
• Author, “Vertical luxury: The future of brand distribution systems,” Competition Law Insight, October 2020
• Author, “Trends and transitions in EU merger control during 2019: The common denominator,” Competition Law Insight, December 2019
• Author, “Tug of war: Siemens/Alstom and the “stay out of tracks” EC order,” Competition Law Insight, March 2019
• Author, “Real steel:The Tata/ThyssenKrupp joint venture prohibition,”, Competition Law Insight, June 2019
• Author, “Mind the gap: AT&T and Time Warner – economic theory and real life evidence,” Competition Law Insight, August 2018

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• Lecturer, “Fundamentals of Article 102 TFEU,” Queen Mary University London (Paris campus), 2024
• Lecturer, “Appeals and fundamental rights,” Queen Mary University London, 2021-2023
• Informa Advanced Competition Law Conference (Brussels), Focus Day: Competition Law and in the digital era: Co-chair and Moderator of Panel “A look to the US,” 2021
• Lecturer, “Commitments as an alternative antitrust remedy,” Queen Mary University London. 2018-2020