DLA Piper advises BMW and Mercedes-Benz on the sale of FreeNow to Lyft

DLA Piper advised BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz Group, on the sale of their joint European multi-mobility app FreeNow to Lyft, a leading ride hailing marketplace.

FreeNow will continue operating as is and is striving for further growth. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions.

In 2012, Lyft was founded as one of the first ridesharing communities in the United States and is available today in the United States and Canada. Lyft offers rideshare, bikes, and scooters all in one app.

FreeNow is one of Europe’s leading multi-mobility apps, with taxi offering at its core, available in 9 European countries and over 150 cities. FreeNow users can access various mobility services within a single app, including taxis, private hire vehicles (PHV) or ridesharing, car sharing, car rental, eScooters, eBikes, eMopeds and public transport.

The DLA Piper team was led by Dr Christoph Dachner (Munich), Dr Benjamin Parameswaran (Hamburg), and Dr Tim Arndt (New York, all Corporate M&A).

The team also comprised partners Dr Björn Enders (Tax), Dr Burkhard Führmeyer (IP), Semin O (Antitrust, all Frankfurt) and Jérôme Halphen (Employment, Paris), counsel Dr Thilo Streit (Regulatory, Cologne) and Dr Enno Ahlenstiel (Antitrust), senior associates Rainer Hartmann (Tax) and Marisa Machacek (IP, all Frankfurt) as well associates Lea Reifers (Hamburg, part of the core team) and Dr Lukas Reitebuch (Munich, both Corporate M&A).

The Mercedes-Benz in-house team was led by Michael Rebholz (Legal Counsel, Legal M&A), and the BMW Group team comprised of Dr Matthias Wahl (Senior Legal Counsel), Sascha Ostermann (Legal Counsel), Dr Torsten Dilly, Silvia Meier, Stephan Kaufmann (all IP).