Hogan Lovells advises leading companies of the German automotive industry on the formation of the pan-European Catena-X network

The project is supported by the German government within the Gaia-X program, which is one of the flagship digital infrastructure projects for building European cloud structures. Catena-X will connect the German automotive industry and partner companies from adjacent industry sectors more closely and enable a secure inter-company exchange of data across supply chains. In addition to optimizing logistics and quality management, more transparency will in particular help to achieve sustainability goals.

Currently, 26 companies are involved in the project. Hogan Lovells took over the entire work package for legal support and implementation of the foundation of Catena-X. The industry network will be organized as a registered association.

"We are grateful and proud that, together with many great colleagues from the participating companies, we were able to create the legal framework for the digitalization of the European automotive industry," said Peter Huber.

Patrick Ayad, head of the global Mobility and Transportation sector group at Hogan Lovells, noted: 

"Catena-X will give companies more digital sovereignty. We are pleased to have been able to support leading companies in the German automotive industry in this forward-looking project and to play a part in shaping the digital transformation in the automotive sector."

Hogan Lovells Team

Dr. Patrick Ayad (Partner, Strategic Operations, Agreements and Regulation);

Peter Huber (Partner), Julia Betz, Alessa Mackensen (Associates) (all Corporate);

Dr. Steffen Steininger (Partner), Dr. Martin Pflüger (Partner), Dr. Marion Fischer (Counsel), Miriam Werner (Associate) (all IT-Law/ Intellectual Property);

Dr. Christoph Wünschmann (Partner), Johanna Brock-Wenzek (Counsel) (both Antitrust)