Carlos Vérgez Muñoz is an Antitrust Partner at CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo. He holds a Law degree (with specialization on economics) from the Deusto University (1998), a Diploma on EU Law from the Catholic University of Leuven (1998 – Erasmus scholarship), a Masters in EU Political Integration from the University of the Basque Country (2000), and an LL.M. in Antitrust and European Legal Studies from the College of Europe, Bruges (2001). Carlos joined CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo as Antitrust Partner in June 2018. Previously, he was Head of Antitrust at Broseta Abogados, and Senior associate with the Antitrust Departments of Clifford Chance (2006-2017) and Garrigues, Abogados y Asesores Tributarios (2004-2006) and as associate with the Competition Law and Corporate Departments of Uría Menéndez at the Brussels and Madrid offices, respectively (2001-2003). He is a frequent speaker at courses and seminars on EU and Spanish competition law and has also authored several competition law publications and is co-author of the first treatise on the Spanish Competition Act and its Implementing Regulation.
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In recent years GOOGLE LLC (GOOGLE) has faced several infringement procedures before EU National Competition Authorities and the European Commission with regards to various claims of anticompetitive behavior in relation to abuse of its dominant position in European markets. Recently, GOOGLE (...)
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Background On 6 February 2020, the Spanish Competition Authority (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, hereinafter the “CNMC”) adopted a commitment decision to end the infringement proceedings (S/DC/0631/18) initiated in November 2018 against Adidas, S.A.U. (“Adidas”) for (...)
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On 26 February 2015, the Spanish Competition Authority (“CNMC”) handed nine companies and two trade associations that operated in the dairy sector fines of EUR 88 million. These fines were annulled by the Spanish High Court in October/November 2018 after the Spanish Supreme Court declared that (...)
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On 20 June 2019, the Spanish Competition and Markets Authority (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, “CNMC” or “Spanish Competition Authority”) fined 26 school transportation companies and two trade associations for taking part in a bid-rigging cartel. The fines amounted to EUR (...)
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The Spanish Government has amended the Spanish Retail Commerce Act (“SRCA”) in order to comply with the European Court of Justice’s (“ECJ”) Europamur judgement on sales at a loss, by issuing Royal Decree-Act 20/2018, of 7 December (the “Royal Decree”) . According to the ECJ, the illegality of (...)
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Background On 16 September 2014, the National Association for Animal Health (“ASEMAZ-ASA”) filed a complaint before the Spanish Competition Authority (“CNMC”) against several companies active in the animal health products market (“the Companies”) for alleged anti-competitive practices in (...)
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On 17 September 2018, the Spanish Supreme Court reinforced the necessary requirements for the Spanish Competition Authority (“CNMC”) to carry out competition dawn raids by recognizing the investigated companies’ “right of opposition” to inspections when the inspectors refuse to inform them of (...)
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THE SPANISH HIGH COURT REINFORCES THE REQUIREMENTS TO ISSUE INSPECTION ORDERS BY THE SPANISH COMPETITION AUTHORITY On 25 July 2018, the High Court (Audiencia Nacional) adopted a ruling by which it annulled a decision of the Spanish Competition Authority (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y (...)
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Between June and July 2018, the Spanish Supreme Court has granted leave to proceed to several appeals in competition law cases by means of Orders that recognised the special cassation relevance of the ‘fortuitous discovery’ doctrine. In these appeals, the Supreme Court will analyse the (...)
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In a preliminary ruling dated 17 May 2018, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) considered that related companies are not obliged to disclose links between them when submitting separate offers for public procurement contracts. However, the contracting authority will be obliged to verify that (...)
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In the context of a preliminary ruling, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) concluded, through judgement of 19 October 2017 (Case C-295/16, Europamur Alimentación, S.A.), that the prohibition on selling at a loss (or sale at a loss) stated in Article 14 of Law 7/1996, regulating retail (...)
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The Spanish Competition Authority (“SCA”) has considered in a decision dated 15 December 2016 that certain retail price maintenance (“RPM”) practices carried out by cosmetic laboratory Martí Tor was not capable of significantly affecting competition, and thereby, of infringing Article 1 of the (...)
