Sebastian Schwiddessen LL.M.
Biography
Sebastian Schwiddessen is a senior associate and a member of Baker McKenzie's TMT Practice in Munich. Sebastian has been working in the entertainment and video games industry for over 16 years. With 21 he founded his own news related business and web portal where he oversaw up to 50 content creators and was responsible for advertisement and regulatory matters. After joining Baker McKenzie in 2014, Sebastian sold his business to fully focus on his career as a legal advisor in the Media and IT sector. Sebastian’s clients range from platform providers over market leading video gaming and entertainment companies to indie publishers. Sebastian is well-known as an advisor in the video games and entertainment sector. Sebastian maintains good contacts to a wide range of regulators in Germany where he has been invited several times to speak as legal expert on youth protection and other matters. He is also Baker McKenzie’s designated contact for the GAME association in Germany and regularly visits industry events such as the Gamescom, VGBA Law Summit and the Games Industry Law Summit where he meets his clients.
Practice Focus
Sebastian's practice focuses on all matters of media and IT law, including media related youth protection and criminal laws, data protection law, gambling laws, eCommerce, app commerce, contract law, film taxes etc. Amongst others, he advised several video games and movie publishers on blacklisting procedures to lift the ban of over 20 video games. He is the lead coordinator in relation to several loot box proceedings in different jurisdictions, including Belgium and the Netherlands. He also represented a leading video games publisher and several movie publishers on a variety of court proceedings to lift the criminal law ban of video games and movies in Germany.
Representative Legal Matters
- Advised several video gaming and film companies on blacklisting procedures to lift the ban of almost 20 video games and films.
- Advised on a broad range of data protection matters including administrative proceedings initiated by a data protection authority in conjunction with a large M&A transaction.
- Advised various video game companies on loot boxes, including land mark proceedings in the NL and Belgium.
- Advised Sony on the rehabilitation of the banned movie “The Evil Dead” (Tanz der Teufel), including court and administrative proceedings.
- Responsible for land mark proceedings for Apple/iTunes before the European General Court against the German film tax on foreign VoD providers.
- Advised on and appealed several age-rating decisions in Australia and Germany.
- Advised various video gaming companies on the localization of terms of use and other eCommerce matters.
Admissions
- Germany (2014)
Education
- Bond University (Master of Law) (2014)
- High Regional Court of Berlin (Second State Exam) (2012)
- Freie Universitaet of Berlin (First State Exam) (2010)
Languages
- English
- German
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