Luis Blanquez is an EU and US Antitrust Partner at Bona Law, based in San Diego. He is an international antitrust and competition law attorney with 15 years of experience at the European Commission and major international law firms in the European Union (Brussels, Madrid and London). Before moving to the United States in 2016, Luis Blanquez served with the Merger Task Force, Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission in Brussels, (DG Comp). From there he spent ten years with international law firms in the EU, representing clients in cartel and other competition-law related investigations, merger control proceedings, as well as general competition law advice and compliance. Luis Blanquez’ earlier European experience also includes training at the Directorate General of Information Society of the European Commission in Brussels, where he was actively involved in the drafting process of the Regulatory Framework of Electronic Communications Networks and Services (i.e. the Framework, Authorization, Access and Interconnection Directives, User’s Right’s Directive, Data Protection Directive and Unbundled Local Loop Regulation); and the “Leonardo da Vinci” European program––where he supported French legal chambers and judges as a junior attorney working in several local French law firms in Nantes. In 2016, Luis Blanquez joined Bona Law PC in San Diego, California. He received his license to practice as a US attorney from the California Bar in 2018. Since joining Bona law in 2016, Luis has prosecuted and defended clients in antitrust actions in federal and state courts, including the defense of a Japanese capacitor manufacturer against class action antitrust claims (In re Capacitors Antitrust Litigation). In addition, Luis continues to provide support to our US clients on EU competition law and advises on the various dissimilarities and substantive differences between the United States’ consumer-welfare based laws and the EU’s rivalry bias. Luis Blanquez is a native Spanish speaker, fluent in English, and proficient in French. He holds a citizenship in Spain (EU) and is a permanent Green Card holder in the United States.
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Lessons from the FTC’s Settlement of the Amgen/Horizon Merger Challenge* In case you missed it on the eve of a holiday weekend, the FTC and several states settled their challenge of Amgen’s acquisition of Horizon last Friday. The case might have seemed like an odd one to antitrust and merger (...)
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The FTC’s challenge of Altria Group’s proposed minority investment in JUUL Labs, Inc. (JLI) in April 2020 generated attention in both the mainstream media and the competition law press. Press coverage since that time has hit the latest developments but often missed the important issues this (...)
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Meanwhile, the DOJ Antitrust Division Launches Merger Challenges in the Airline, Publishing, and Sugar Industries* As we have reported numerous times (most recently here), the Federal Trade Commission has been making headlines with some controversial changes to U.S. merger review procedures, (...)
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Antitrust Political Developments: Biden Administration Issues Executive Order on Competition and Congress Proposes Six New Antitrust Bills* This month President Biden issued the Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy (the “Order”). The Order aims to reduce the trend (...)
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Facebook Wins First Antitrust Battle: The FTC and State Enforcers Fail to Establish (For Now) Facebook’s Monopoly on Social Media Networks (with update)* In late 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the attorneys-general (AGs) from 48 states filed nearly identical antitrust lawsuits (...)
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Antitrust Political Developments: Biden Administration Issues Executive Order on Competition and Congress Proposes Six New Antitrust Bills* On June 23, the House Judiciary Committee marked up and reported favorably six new tech antitrust bills called to be a “historic package of bipartisan (...)
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ANTITRUST NEWS: THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT AGREES THAT THE SUPREME COURT’S PHOEBE PUTNEY DECISION REALLY DID CHANGE THE STATE-ACTION-IMMUNITY TEST FROM THE EARLIER HALLIE AND OMNI DECISIONS* The Eleventh Circuit recently rejected the City of LaGrange’s attempt to assert state-action immunity from (...)
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Antitrust News: The European Commission imposes fines for the first time in 15 years as a result of online retail price restrictions (RPM)* On July 24, 2018, the European Commission fined manufacturers Asus, Denon & Marantz, Philips and Pioneer for over €111 million for restricting the (...)
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The National Competition Commission (“CNC”) has imposed a fine of 3.3 million euros on Correos for having abused its dominant position in: (i) the wholesale market for access services to the public postal network and (ii) the retail services market for administrative notifications. In May (...)
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In October of 2012 the Spanish National Court (“NC”) concluded its first two judgments on the Spanish asphalt roads cartel (“the Cartel”). In both cases the NC explained how the companies involved in the public bid process decided in a “competitive way” who was going to win the bid. The NC (...)
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The Spanish National Court has applied the landmark ECJ dual pricing ruling to quash a decision by the Spanish Competition Commission dismissing a complaint against Pfizer’s pricing policy for pharmaceutical products. On 13 June 2011, the Spanish National Court («Audiencia Nacional« or «the (...)
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In December 2010 the Spanish Supreme Court (“Tribunal Supremo”) confirmed that the bakeries Association of the Valencia province (“Federación Gremial de Panadería y Pastelería de la Provincia de Valencia”) had taken part in an anticompetitive collusive practice when it recommended minimum (...)
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What is the Twombly Motion-to-Dismiss Standard for Antitrust Cases? Comparing the Ninth and Second Circuits* As a long-standing antitrust attorney in Europe, making the decision to move from Madrid to San Diego a few years ago to practice law in the U.S. has been a life-changing experience. (...)
