Hogan Lovells advises BASF, BMW Group, Henkel, Mercedes-Benz, SAP, Schaeffler, Siemens, T-Systems, Volkswagen and ZF on Cofinity X Joint Venture

With the foundation of Cofinity-X the shareholders BASF, BMW Group, Henkel, Mercedes-Benz, SAP, Schaeffler, Siemens, T-Systems, Volkswagen and ZF initiate the next step in Europe to foster the Catena-X initiative. Cofinity-X strives to be one of the first operating companies which aims to provide products and services for the secure exchange of data throughout the entire automotive value chain within the Catena-X ecosystem.

Cofinity-X will enable important progress in operationalising and building end-to-end data chains for the traceability of supply streams across the value chain. The data exchange will be based on the Catena-X and Gaia-X principles. Companies involved in the data exchange will receive full data sovereignty in an open, trustworthy, collaborative and secure environment.

Hogan Lovells had already advised a larger number of German companies (including the Cofinity-X partners) on the creation and roll-out of the Catena-X ecosystem in mid-2021 and has continued to support Catena-X on an ongoing basis since then.

"Advising the Cofinity-X partners is a great success for us. Hogan Lovells is the go-to advisor for the digital transformation of the automotive industry. Germany's largest companies rely on us and our expertise on this important future topic. We are very proud of this", said Peter Huber.

"The foundation of Cofinity-X is another milestone for the digital transformation in the automotive industry. The automotive industry is making a significant contribution to a transparent and thus sustainable value chain. We are proud that we had the opportunity to support several renowned companies in this important project", added Dr Patrick Ayad, Global Managing Partner Sectors.

Hogan Lovells team for the Cofinity-X partners

Peter Huber (Partner), Tobias Flasbarth (Counsel), Christian Schröder (Senior Associate), Alessa Mackensen, Julia Victoria Betz (Associates), Ellen Mottl, Shervin Mir Marashi (Research Assistants) (all M&A);

Dr Christoph Wünschmann (Partner), Dr Lukas Rengier (Counsel), Dr Philipp Heuser (Senior Associate), Benedikt Weiß (Associate), Julius Ott (all Antitrust);

Dr Martin Pflüger (Partner), Dr Steffen Steininger (Partner), Dr Marion Fischer (Counsel) (all IP/IT);

Imogen Fowler (Partner), Jane Seager (Partner), Vanessa Tang (Senior Trademark Executive), Jose Casillas (Senior Associate), Lyuba Mitseva (Paralegal) (all Trademarks and Brands);

Dr Ingmar Dörr (Partner, Tax);

Dr Tim Joppich (Partner), Dr Sabrina Gäbeler (Counsel) (both Employment).