White & Case (Brussels)

Assimakis Komninos

White & Case (Brussels)
Partner

Assimakis Komninos is a partner with White & Case based in the firm’s Brussels office. Assimakis advises on questions of EU and Greek competition law, EU business regulation, international arbitration, litigation and private international law. He has argued both of the only two competition preliminary reference cases to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) from Greece. His practice focuses on complex cases of abuse of dominance, restrictive agreements and merger notifications, and he represents clients before the European Courts, the European Commission, national competition authorities, national courts and international arbitration tribunals. Clients look to Assimakis for his proven track record and his ability to combine quietly resolving the most sensitive and complex investigations with aggressively litigating to achieve the necessary results. Chambers Global 2020 notes that he has "a solid theoretical background, which means he can handle different complex cases", while Legal 500 2020 lauds him for "his professionalism, proactive mentality and good communication ethos." Assimakis has acted before the ECJ in Syfait v. GlaxoSmithKline and Lélos v. GlaxoSmithKline (parallel trade of pharmaceuticals - abuse of dominance), and in GlaxoSmithKline Services v. Commission (parallel trade of pharmaceuticals - Article 101). He has also been involved before the EU General Court in Microsoft v. Commission (compulsory licensing of interoperability information), GlaxoSmithKline Services v. Commission (parallel trade of pharmaceuticals - application of Article 101), Chalkor Metal Works v. Commission (copper plumbing tubes), Public Power Corporation v. Commission (Greek lignites), EAEPC v. Commission (rejection of a complaint), representing GlaxoSmithKline, Google v. Commission (Google Shopping) and Google v. Commission (Google Android). He also successfully represented Aegean Airlines in Aegean/Olympic II, which resulted in the European Commission clearing the deal in a Phase II proceeding. This was the first time that the Commission cleared a merger after it had previously prohibited it. Assimakis has represented clients with excellent results in proceedings before the Albanian, Croatian, Cypriot, French, Greek, Kosovo, Romanian, Russian and Slovenian competition authorities and Belgian, Bulgarian, Cypriot, French, Greek, Latvian, Spanish and Russian courts. He has particular experience in arbitration cases involving competition issues, and in private antitrust litigation cases in national courts. Assimakis is a former Commissioner and Member of the Board of the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC). Assimakis is currently a visiting professor (2020-2022) at Université Catholique de Louvain, a visiting fellow of the Centre for Law and Governance in Europe at University College London (UCL) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC) at the College of Europe. He is a prolific writer on legal matters and often gives speeches and seminars on EU competition law, arbitration and Greek law, and is a non-governmental advisor to the International Competition Network (ICN).

Distinctions

Linked authors

White & Case (Brussels)
White & Case (Washington)
Suffolk University Law School
White & Case (Riyadh)
White & Case (New York)

Videos

Interview Assimakis Komninos
Assimakis Komninos 17 March 2022 Paris
Assimakis Komninos
Assimakis Komninos 28 October 2016 New York
Assimakis Komninos & Jacquelyn Maclennan, White & Case
Assimakis Komninos 25 March 2014 Washington DC

Articles

25394 Bulletin

Katarzyna Czapracka, Jérémie Jourdan, Assimakis Komninos, Tilman Kuhn, Nina Frie The EU Court of Justice confirms that the national authorities can review ex post below-threshold mergers under abuse of dominance rules (Towercast)

461

The long-awaited European Court of Justice’s judgment in Towercast confirmed that national competition authorities (and national courts) can apply abuse of dominance rules to mergers that did not trigger EU and national merger control thresholds, and were not referred to the European (...)

Katarzyna Czapracka, Assimakis Komninos, Niccolò Piga The EU Court of Justice confirms that an effects-based approach applies to exclusive dealing and clarifies the narrow circumstances under which the conduct of distributors can engage the liability of a dominant company (Unilever Italia)

691

On 19 January 2023, the EU Court of Justice, answering questions from the Italian Council of State, confirmed that the Intel effects-based approach applies also to exclusive dealing practices and held that competition authorities must duly examine economic evidence produced by dominant (...)

Jérémie Jourdan, Katarzyna Czapracka, James Killick, Assimakis Komninos, Peter Citron The EU Court of Justice clarifies the scope of the essential facilities doctrine in a case involving the Lithuanian national railway (Lietuvos geležinkeliai)

578

On 12 January 2023, the EU Court of Justice upheld the EU General Court’s judgment imposing a fine on Lithuanian Railways for dismantling a section of railway track. While reaffirming its essential facility case law (Bronner), the Court confirmed that the Bronner case law did not apply to the (...)

Assimakis Komninos, Jérémie Jourdan, Preti Giulio The EU Commission publishes its draft DMA Implementing Regulation for consultation, together with the proposed notification form for "gatekeepers"

326

On 9 December 2022, the European Commission published its draft DMA Implementing Regulation for consultation, together with the proposed Notification Form for "gatekeepers". The text deals with notifications, submissions and practical arrangements in relation to future Commission decisions (...)

Jérémie Jourdan, Assimakis Komninos, Tilman Kuhn, Strati Sakellariou-Witt, Jérémie Marthan, Katarzyna Czapracka, Nina Frie The EU Court of Justice AG Kokott proposes that non-reportable transactions could be caught by abuse of dominance rules (Towercast)

190

Advocate General Juliane Kokott has proposed that the EU Court of Justice should find that competition authorities have the power to apply Article 102 TFEU to corporate transactions that are not reportable, and test under that provision whether the transaction as such constitutes an abuse of a (...)

Assimakis Komninos, James Killick The EU General Court quashes dominant chip manufacturer’s antitrust fine for "exclusivity payments" and censures the EU Commission for multiple due process and substantive errors (Qualcomm)

1563

The General Court of the European Union delivered a blow to the European Commission in fully annulling its Qualcomm (exclusivity payments) decision of 2018 and a EUR 997 million fine. Qualcomm v Commission is the first annulment of an Article 102 TFEU decision adopted by Commissioner (...)

Peter Citron, Tilman Kuhn, Assimakis Komninos, James Killick, Jérémie Jourdan The EU Court of Justice dismisses the appeals of several manufacturers of medicines involved in an agreement seeking to delay the marketing of the generic antidepressant citalopram (Lundbeck)

755

On 25 March 2021, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") dismissed all the appeals against the European Commission’s decision to fine Lundbeck and several other companies for entering into anti-competitive patent settlement agreements. The judgments largely repeat the position taken by the (...)

James Killick, Assimakis Komninos, Aqeel Kadri The England & Wales Court of Appeal upholds the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s quashing of the Competition Authority’s decision against pharmaceutical undertakings who had allegedly abused their dominant position by pricing their epilepsy drug unfairly (Pfizer / Flynn)

406

On 10 March 2020 the Court of Appeal upheld the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s (CAT) quashing of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) decision that Pfizer and Flynn Pharma (Flynn) had abused their dominant positions in the market by pricing their epilepsy drug unfairly. Among other (...)

Assimakis Komninos, Veronica Pinotti The Italian Competition Authority publishes guidelines for antitrust, privacy and consumer protection that will govern its approach to Big Data cases

26

Setting the scene The Italian Competition Authority ("ICA"), recently published a set of Guidelines and Policy recommendations relating to the Digital Sector ("Guidelines"), focusing on antitrust, privacy regulation and consumer protection, the development of the digital economy, and, more (...)

James Killick, Assimakis Komninos, Strati Sakellariou-Witt The UK Competition Authority closes its investigation into an allegedly abusive discount scheme in the pharmaceutical sector (Remicade)

617

This article has been nominated for the 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. The CMA Remicade decision: discount schemes and abuse of dominance – effects matter!* Summary On 14 March 2019, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (...)

Assimakis Komninos, James Killick The EU Court of Justice dismisses the Commission’s appeal against the annulment of its decision to prohibit a merger in the parcel delivery market (UPS / TNT)

641

This article has been nominated for the 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. EU Court confirms the need for transparency and full disclosure of economic analyses in EU merger cases (UPS/TNT)* On 16 January 2019, the Court of Justice (...)

Assimakis Komninos, James Killick The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal announces its provisional judgment in an appeal against the Competition Authority’s infringement decision in an excessive price case (Pfizer / Flynn)

638

I. Introduction In the last couple of years, there has been a trend for antitrust watchdogs around the world to investigate excessive pricing, especially in the pharmaceutical sector. Last year, the European Commission opened its first investigation into excessive pricing in the (...)

Assimakis Komninos, James Killick, Jacquelyn MacLennan, Jérémie Jourdan, Strati Sakellariou-Witt, Jan Jeram, Axel Schulz The EU Court of Justice endorses an effects-based assessment of rebates (Intel)

898

This article has been nominated for the 2018 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 6 September 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU" or "Court") essentially held in Intel that the European Commission ("Commission") (...)

Assimakis Komninos, Ian Forrester, James Killick The EU Court of Justice holds that parent companies may be fined for repeated infringements even without being an addressee of the earlier decisions (Versalis)

906

On 5 March 2015, the European Court of Justice (CoJ) handed down its judgment in Versalis , concerning the increasing of fines for antitrust infringements where a company is found to be a repeat offender. The judgment raises important questions about the respect for the rights of defence in EU (...)

Assimakis Komninos, Ian Forrester, Jacquelyn MacLennan, Kai Struckmann, Mark Powell, Pontus Lindfelt The European Commission adopts a package on private damages actions in antitrust cases

332

This article has been nominated for the 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. Summary On 11 June 2013, the European Commission (“Commission”) adopted a proposal for a directive on how citizens and companies can bring damages claims (...)

Assimakis Komninos Private enforcement: An overview of EU and national case law

564

1. Introduction 2011 marked the ten year anniversary of the seminal Courage v. Crehan ruling of the Court of Justice, so it seems appropriate to take stock. In the last ten years there have been a lot of developments, indeed, a true revolution with regard to private antitrust enforcement in (...)

Assimakis Komninos The EU Court of Justice rules that the Greek Competition Authority is not a “court or tribunal” in the meaning of Art. 234 EC and therefore can not apply for an ECJ preliminary ruling (Syfait / GlaxoSmithKline)

10733

On 31 May 2005 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its judgment in Case C-53/03, Syfait and others v. GlaxoSmithKline AEVE and GlaxoSmithKline plc (“Syfait”), which raises the question of whether a dominant pharmaceutical undertaking is under a duty to supply unlimited quantities of (...)

37154 Review

Agisilaos Karpetas, Assimakis Komninos, Carpagnano Michele, Frederic Jenny, Knut Fournier The recovery of antitrust harms in foreign legal systems (Antitrust damages actions in France and in Europe : Current situation and upcoming changements, Paris, 13 May 2014)

1046

The first roundtable of the conference held in Paris, the 13th May 2014 on the recovery of antitrust harm was dedicated to the antitrust harm in foreign legal systems. Michele CARPAGNANO Professor, University of Trento Co-Director, Osservatorio Antitrust Knut PROVIDER Research Associate, (...)

Assimakis Komninos, Florence Ninane, Francesco Rosati, Geoffrey D. Oliver, Hendrick Bourgeois, Ioannis Lianos, James Killick, Johanne Peyre, Niamh McCarthy, Philippe Choné The EU guidance on exclusionary abuses: A step forward or a missed opportunity?

6943

What are the consequences for business of the Commission’s Communication on Article 82 of the Treaty? Does it make the Commission’s action more predictable? Does the use of a wide range of economic criteria reduce the risk that pro-competitive practices by dominant companies will be considered (...)

Assimakis Komninos The EU White Paper for damages actions: A first appraisal

6191

La Commission européenne a publié début avril 2008 son Livre blanc sur les actions en dommages et intérêts pour infraction aux règles communautaires sur les ententes et les abus de position dominante. Le Livre blanc présente un certain nombre de propositions spécifiques qui permettront de (...)

Assimakis Komninos, Ian Forrester Lisbonne Agenda and Competition Law

5595

The European Commission tends to refer more and more to the Lisbon Agenda in various competition policy documents. The authors are of the opinion that such a tendancy is contrary to the objectives of the competition policy. Recently, in some of its official communications on Community (...)

Books

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