Henar González Durántez is a Partner, Competition, Regulation and Trade at Herbert Smith Freehills, based in the Madrid office. Prior to joining the firm, she was a Counsel at Uría Menéndez, Madrid. Her practice area is European and Spanish Antitrust Law, covering, in particular, merger control issues, cartels and abuses of dominant position. Henar acts for clients in various sectors, including telecommunications, transport, cement, paper and paperboard, retail distribution and other industrial sectors, and regularly advices a leading multinational group in the beverage sector. She obtained her law degree at the University of Valladolid in 1996 and a special degree in European Law from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium).
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On 24 November 2022, Spain’s National Markets and Competition Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, “CNMC”) announced its intention to start including directly in its decisions the scope and duration of procurement bans imposed on parties involved in cartel (...)
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On 21 October 2022, the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) imposed a €38.9 million fine on pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) for abusing its dominant position in the Spanish market for contraceptive vaginal rings. In particular, the CNMC concluded that (...)
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The amendment of Law 12/2013, of 2 August, on measures to improve the functioning of the food chain (Law 12/2013) was approved by Spanish Congress on 2 December and entered into effect on 16 December 2021. The primary purpose of the amendment is to transpose into Spanish law Directive (EU) (...)
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The Spanish Supreme Court (SC) has delivered a judgment in which it confirmed that courts are able to issue injunctive relief to temporarily prevent decisions on penalties rendered by the National Markets and Competition Commission (the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, or (...)
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In its judgment dated 6 May 2021, the Spanish Supreme Court (the "SC") found that an exchange of information among competitors that does not directly relate to final prices but that affects certain elements linked to final prices such as commercial margins, may reduce competition in (...)
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On 28 April 2021, Royal Decree-Law 7/2021, of 27 April, was published in Spain’s Official State Journal (RD 7/2021). RD 7/2021 has the aim of transposing into Spanish legislation a number of EU directives, including Directive (EU) 2019/1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 (...)
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The European Commission (EC) recently published a Notice to fight collusion in public procurement (the Notice) in which it included a series of guidelines aimed at the contracting authorities on how to apply the grounds for exclusion provided for in article 57, paragraph 4, letter d) of (...)
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The National Court has annulled the CNMC’s decision in case S/DC/0525/14 CEMENTOS. In this case, the CNMC fined a number of companies for taking part in four cartels, which constituted four separate single and continuous infringements. However, the National Court, found that the conditions for (...)
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The Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (“CNMC”) has confirmed in the final version of the Guide on compliance programmes in relation to competition rules (the “Guide”) that compliance programmes could potentially modulate the penalties imposed on companies investigated for (...)
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The CNMC bolsters its online whistleblowing hotline to pursue anticompetitive conduct in any sector, although with a special interest in the medical equipment, funeral and cremation services sectors. An enquiries platform is also launched so that operators can make competition law enquiries (...)
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The Provincial Court of Pontevedra, Spain (Provincial Court) reduced the amount of damages received by an individual for the acquisition of a truck from one of the companies sanctioned by the European Commission’s decision in case AT.39824 -Trucks (EC Decision) when that cartel was in place (...)
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In its recent judgments dated 1 October 2019 (in connection with appeals 5280/2018 and 5244/2018 ), the Spanish Supreme Court (the "SSC") has found that the legal representatives and members of the management boards of undertakings that infringe competition rules need not have a decisive or (...)
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In its judgment dated 9 April 2019, the Spanish Supreme Court (the ’SC’) found that the members of the governing bodies of undertakings that infringe competition rules can be penalised for their participation in those infringements regardless of the individual or collegiate nature of the (...)
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This article has been nominated for the 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. Introduction On 6 October 2015, the European Court of Justice (the Court) issued its preliminary ruling in Post Danmark A/S v Konkurrencerådet (Competition (...)
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After three months of investigation, on 25 March 2008, the Spanish Competition Authorities decided to open a second phase investigation regarding the proposed takeover of Condor Fledgiest GmbH (“Condor”) by Air Berlin Plc (“Air Berlin”). Condor is a charter carrier based in Germany, which (...)
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Carrefour, the largest supermarket and hypermarket retailer in Spain, has executed an agreement with Fuertes Group to outsource processing, handling, cutting and packaging services for meat, butcher products and cheese. Fuertes Group is a family holding company present in the food sector. (...)
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The Spanish Competition Authorities (Comisión Nacional de Competencia) clears on 3 September 2007 the acquisition of Plus Supermercados (a company previously belonging to the Tengelmann Group, which operates 251 hard -discount stores in Spain) by DIA. The acquirer is a wholly-owned subsidiary (...)
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The Court for the Defence of Competition has proposed the Government not to oppose a merger between two companies that provide fast-ferry services between the South of Spain and the North of Africa, including the Spanish city of Ceuta. This transaction consists in the acquisition of Buquebus, (...)
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The Spanish Competition Authorities have recently considered that the license granted by Procter & Gamble to Arbora & Ausonia to use the “Tampax” brands for the distribution of “Tampax” products in Spain and Portugal constitutes an operation of concentration within the meaning of (...)
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Spanish Competition Authority (Servicio de Defensa de la Competencia), 28 December 2006, Sogecable/AVS, N-6094 (Decision to refer to the competition court (Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia) for a second phase investigation“Resolución de remisión al Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia”) (...)
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The judgment of the Spanish Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) dated 9 March 2005 reviewed the decision of the Court for the Defence of Competition (“CDC”) of 19 November 1998, which had been appealed by the Spanish Association of Real Estate Agents (Consejo General de los Colegios Oficiales de (...)
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The Spanish Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) reviewed the judgment of the Audiencia Nacional endorsing the decision issued by the Court for the Defence of Competition (“CDC”) of 16 February 1999, in the “Tabaco Canarias” case. The CDC’s Decision considered Tabacalera, S.A. (“Tabacalera”) (...)
