Ami Paanajärvi
Ami Paanajärvi is a Helsinki-based Partner and Head of Roschier’s EU & Competition and Public Procurement practices in Finland. She has extensive experience in antitrust proceedings before the European Commission and the Finnish competition authority, and regularly advises clients in all types of competition law issues, particularly related to behavioral antitrust, merger control and dominance issues. Ami is a core member of Roschier’s crossborder FDI & Protective Security practice area and she also has experience in State Aid procedures before the European Commission. She is recognized as one of the leading experts in her field in Finland.
Before joining Roschier in 2006, Ami spent six years as an attorney in Amsterdam and Brussels working for the law firm Stibbe. She has been a member of the New York Bar since 2003.
Ami regularly contributes to articles to leading competition law publications such as Global Competition Review and Global Cartel Litigation Review as well as is the national reporter for publications such as the Jones/van der Woude European Competition Law Casebook and Lexis Nexis European Competition Law.
Ami is recognized as one of the leading experts in Finland in EU and competition law by international publications such as Chambers Europe, The Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal. Also, Who’s Who Legal ranks Ami as a Thought Leader in Competition in 2023. Further, Ami was the exclusive winner of the International Law Office (ILO) Client Choice Award of the Competition & Antitrust category for Finland in 2020.
According to clients, Ami “is not only a pleasant and joyful person to work with, but also a highly skilled competition lawyer who is ready to help with the most complex matters in the field even around the clock” (The Legal 500, 2023). She is further described by clients as a “wonderful individual who always puts her client’s needs first and does not hesitate to go the extra mile” (Client Choice Awards, 2020) and praised for being “very approachable and excellent in communicating complex competition rules to business people in a practical and pragmatic manner” (The Legal 500, 2021).
Further, according to clients Ami has “extraordinary commercial skills” and she “can put things into perspective and is not afraid to tell exactly how things are and recommend what to do, which is priceless” (Chambers Europe, 2021). Ami is “proactive, interested, respondent and always to the point in her legal advice” (Chambers Europe, 2020) and together with her team she is “easy to work with” as well as “very professional, enthusiastic, proactive as well as responsive in their work” (The Legal 500, 2020). Ami is also praised for being “really good and understanding extremely well what the most relevant aspects are” and for being “available and always able to help with complex transactions” (Chambers Europe, 2020). Clients also comment that she is “extremely good at explaining competition law issues in a practical way” (IFLR1000, 2020/2021 (31st edition).
Ami Paanajärvi’s experience includes advising:
- Wolt in the EUR 7 billion sale of the company to DoorDash;
- Neles Corporation in the merger with Valmet Oyj;
- Arcus ASA in cross-border merger with Altia Plc;
- Telia in the EUR 722 million sale of part of its tower business in Norway and Finland;
- IK Partners in the acquisition of Renta Group Oy from Intera Partners;
- Mobidiag and its shareholders in the EUR 668 million sale of the company to Hologic, Inc;
- Orkla ASA in the acquisition of NutraQ 2 AS, a leading supplier of health and beauty products within the two well-known health and beauty concepts VitaePro and Oslo Skin Lab;
- Neles in Alfa Laval’s EUR 1.7 billion recommended public cash tender offer for all the shares in Neles Corporation;
- Finnair in its EUR 500 million rights offering;
- Fortum in the sale of its district heating business in the Järvenpää-Tuusula area in Finland to a consortium consisting of Vantaa Energy Ltd, Infranode, and Keva;
- Fortum in the sale of a majority stake in its Nordic electric vehicle charging point operator Fortum Recharge to Infracapital;
- Tieto Corporation in its combination with EVRY ASA through a statutory cross border merger;
- Loxam S.A.S in its EUR 970 million public tender offer for Ramirent Plc;
- Investor consortium led by ANTA Sports Products Limited in the EUR 4.6 billion public offer for Amer Sports Corporation;
- VMP Plc in the merger of VMP and Smile Henkilöstöpalvelut Oyj;
- Coronaria in its mandatory public offer for Silmäasema;
- First State Investments in the sale of Digita Oy to Digital Colony;
- Cognizant in the acquisition of Samlink;
- Humana AB in its acquisition of all shares in Coronaria Hoiva Oy from Coronaria Oy;
- Bonnier in the SEK 9.2 billion sale of Bonnier Broadcasting to Telia Company;
- Funds managed by KKR and Triton in the sale of Mehiläinen Group;
- KONGSBERG, a Norwegian listed technology corporation, in its EUR 272 million acquisition of 49.9% of the shares in Patria Oyj from the State of Finland.
Roschier (2006-), Principal Associate (2014-2017), Partner since 2017
Stibbe /Brussels, Amsterdam, Associate Lawyer (2000-2005)
Member of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA)
Member of the American Bar Association (ABA)
Member of the International Bar Association (IBA)
Member of Suomen Kilpailuoikeudellinen Yhdistys (Finnish Competition Law Association)
Member of the Legal Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce Finland (AmCham), Vice Chair (2015-2017)
Board member of International Women’s Forum Finland (2020-2022)
Board member of Aamu Finland’s Children’s Cancer Foundation (2022 -)
The Legal 500: Cartels Country Comparative Guide, Finland (2019) with H. Puskala, Legalease Ltd.
GCLR – 2016 Volume 9 Issue 2/2016
GTDT Market Intelligence – Merger Control: Finland (2015, 2016, 2017), with N. Hukkinen, Law Business Research
GTDT Cartel Regulation (2012-2014), with C. Wik, Law Business Research
ABA Antitrust Year in Review: Finland (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
Chapter on cartels in “Kilpailuoikeus” (“Competition Law”), Talentum 2009 (M. Alkio, C. Wik)
”The European Commission’s 2006 Leniency Notice – for better or for worse?”, IBA Competition Law International, Vol 4 No 2, June 2008
Antitrust Before the Courts: The Nordic Experience (panelist), IBA Mid-year Competition Conference, Stockholm, June 2022
Distribution: Ready for the next generation (panelist), European Competition Lawyers Association, Stockholm, May 2022
Competition law developments across the region 2018, W@Competition, 3 October 2018 Vilnius (panel moderator)
Competition Law Nordic, KNect Informa, 2017, 2018 and 2019 (panel moderator)
GCR Live 2nd Annual Cartels, 28 March 2017, Washington DC (panelist)
Suuri Kilpailupäivä 2016 (The Competition Law Day 2016), Kauppakamarin koulutus, 19 May 2016 Helsinki (chairman and panelist)
Suuri Kilpailupäivä 2015 (The Competition Law Day 2015), Kauppakamarin koulutus, 17 September 2015 Helsinki (speaker)
“When is your lawyer not REALLY your lawyer?”, AmCham Finland and Association of Corporate Counsel Europe, 28 April 2015, Helsinki (speaker)
”Kilpailuoikeus ja päivittäistavarakauppa – sääntely ja valvonta kilpailulain muutosten valossa” (Competition law and retail – regulation and enforcement in light of the changes in the Competition Act), Edilex, 8 April 2014, Helsinki (speaker)
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Law School, LL.M. (2000)
Thames Valley University, School of law, London, LL.B Hons. (1999)
English, Finnish, Dutch
Ami is a wonderful individual who always puts her client’s needs first and does not hesitate to go the extra mile.
Client Choice
