Contact

Andrea Usai

European Commission - DG COMP (Brussels)

Civil servant

Andrea Usai is a Case Handler at the European Commission, DG Competition (Mergers). Prior to that he worked in private practice (Brussels) and, prior to that, as a BlueBook trainee in the unit dealing with antitrust in IT, Internet and Consumer Electronics (DGComp). He holds a PhD from the Universities of Bologna and Strasbourg (2015) and, under the supervision of Professor Richard Whish, he successfully obtained his LLM in Competition Law at King’s College London (2012). During his PhD he focused on the impact of Internal Market, Public Procurement and State Aid provisions on certain authorisations and concession contracts. He has also presented a few papers at international conferences and he has published a few articles in international journals, such as the European Competition Law Review. During his LLM he wrote his dissertation on fairness and efficiency in the enforcement of cartel cases.

Contact

Linked authors

Giuseppe Abbamonte

European Commission - DG CNECT (Brussels)

Belgium 1 contribution 346 visits

Luca Aguzzoni

European Commission

Belgium 2 contributions 274 visits

Lars Albath

European Commission - DG HR (Brussels)

Belgium 1 contribution 644 visits

Svend Albæk

European Commission - DG COMP (Brussels)

Belgium 6 contributions 15760 visits

Monica Alfaro-Murcia

DG EMPL (Brussels)

Belgium 1 contribution 795 visits

Articles

6562 Bulletin

Andrea Usai Road transport & Competition law: An overview of EU and national case law

15 December 2022 688

After giving an overview of the most recent and relevant EU and national cases in which questions concerning access to facilities have arose, this foreword will outline what are the key competition challenges, in terms of access to facilities, which are lying ahead for the European transport sector. More specifically on this point, some categories of road and maritime transport are currently going through significant changes. In its seminal judgement in Oscar Bronner, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“the CJEU”) dealt with a question as to when refusal of access to a specific facility (i.e. home delivery scheme in that case) may constitute an abuse of dominance. The CJEU made clear that in order for an incumbent’s competitor to claim an abusive refusal to supply under Article 102 TFEU, an incumbent’s competitor needs to show that the facility it wants to get access to is indispensable. Access to facilities issues have come up, in the most recent years, across all competition law instruments, i.e. antitrust, merger and state aid cases and across various transport sectors, e.g. air, rail and road transportation.

Andrea Usai Transport & Access to facilities: An overview of EU and national case law

4 July 2019 1074

Andrea Usai The Italian Regional Administrative Court of Lazio upholds fine for abuse of dominance in the ice-cream market through rebates and exclusivity clauses (Unilever / Distribuzione Gelati)

31 May 2018 262

The AGCM fined Unilever Italia Mkt Operations Srl (“Unilever”), which belongs to the Unilever Group and is active in the production and distribution of ice cream, food and home and personal care products, EUR 60.669 million for infringing Article 102 TFEU by putting in place exclusivity (...)

Andrea Usai The Italian Competition Authority decides that commitments submitted by pharmaceutical companies in order to alleviate competition concerns should have been published (Arca / Novartis-Italfarmaco)

19 December 2014 292

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) decided that, according to Art. 14-ter of Italian Law 287/1990, the commitments that Novartis and Italfarmaco had submitted in order to alleviate concerns in terms of an alleged infringement of Art. 101 TFEU, should have been published, both in its (...)

Andrea Usai The Italian Competition Authority fines a notary association for adopting a decision of an association of undertakings aimed at reintroducing minimum tariffs (Order of Notaries of Milan)

30 May 2013 264

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has fined the Order of notaries of Milan a total of 99,403 euro for adopting a decision aimed at limiting the autonomy in the determination of individual notaries’ remuneration by reintroducing repealed minimum tariffs. The aim of the deliberation (...)

Andrea Usai The Italian Competition Authority opens investigations against 3 telecom operators for an alleged cartel aimed at impeding a competitor from getting access to the market for mobile services (Telecom Italia / Vodafone / Wind)

12 September 2012 231

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has opened investigations against Telecom Italia Spa, Vodafone and Wind for an alleged cartel aimed at forcing dealers not to give access to the downstream market to BIP mobile, the brand new mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) mainly acting as an (...)

Andrea Usai The Italian Competition Authority fines a leading pharmaceutical company €10.6 million for abusing its dominant position (Pfizer)

11 January 2012 675

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has fined the Pfizer group, a multinational company in the pharmaceutical sector, a total of 10.6 million euro for abusing its dominant position in the market for commercializing glaucoma medicines based on the active ingredient latanoprost. The Pfizer (...)

Andrea Usai The Italian Competition Authority detects and punishes a cartel between a trade association and 20 trucking companies that haul freight to or from Italy aimed at fixing the size and form of price increases applied to their customers (International logistics)

15 June 2011 645

The Italian Competition Authority (hereinafter “AGCM”) has fined a trade association and 20 trucking companies that haul freight to or from Italy a total of € 76.447.677 for operating a single and complex price-fixing cartel having as its object the restriction of competition for at least five (...)

Andrea Usai The Italian Competition Authority accepts commitments from a national recycling consortium in relation to alleged anticompetitive practices in the paper waste and raw paper material sector (COMIECO)

16 March 2011 966

The Italian Competition Authority (hereafter Agcm) has accepted and made binding commitments offered by the National Consortium established under Italian private law to rationalize, organize and promote the recovery and recycling of cellulose-based packaging (hereafter “COMIECO”). The Agcm (...)

Andrea Usai The Italian Competition Authority detects and punishes a cartel between cosmetics and drugs producers aimed at fixing the retail products prices and at weakening the market power of distributors

15 December 2010 1214

The Italian Competition Authority (hereafter Agcm) has fined 16 producers of cosmetics, drugs and soaps a total of € 81.181.335 for operating a complex price-fixing cartel having as its object the restriction of competition which harmed Italian consumers of cosmetics, drugs and soaps for seven (...)

Andrea Usai The Italian Competition Authority investigates a bar association to determine whether its decision constitutes a decision by an association of undertakings with the aim of infringing competition law (Order of Lawyers in Brescia)

18 June 2009 251

The Italian Competition Authority (hereinafter AGCM) is to investigate the Order of Lawyers in Brescia to determine whether the Order’s decision, which punished for unfair and unbecoming conduct two Italian lawyers of the law firm “Legal Aid for All” (ALT), constitutes a decision by an (...)