Enzo Marasà is a partner and co-head of practice at Portolano Cavallo, based in Milan. His practice focuses on antitrust, as well as regulatory and unfair commercial practices. Over his fifteen year career, Enzo has assisted national and multinational companies on issues of competition and EU law: merger control, anti-competitive agreements, abuses of a dominant position, challenging decisions of antitrust authorities, private antitrust litigation, restrictive regulatory measures on the free movement in the single market, distribution or cooperation agreements between competitors, technology transfers, implementation of antitrust compliance programs, etc. He has particular experience in the following sectors: media, telecommunications and Internet, electronic payment services, e-commerce, fashion & luxury, Life Sciences and pharmaceuticals, energy. Enzo represents clients before the Italian Competition Authority, the European Commission and the Courts of the European Union. Before joining Portolano Cavallo, Enzo collaborated, among others, with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliff in Brussels and BonelliErede, in Brussels and Milan. Enzo was awarded a Law Degree in 2003 and a post-graduate diploma in 2004 National and EU Competition Law, both by Università degli Studi di Milano Statale. He authored numerous articles and publications on national newspapers and legal journals in the field of competition law.
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On July 4, 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued a landmark decision in Case C-252/21 regarding the compliance of a well-known social network with the GDPR (Regulation EU 2016/679) and competition law in collecting personal data and the related consent for the (...)
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On May 16, 2023, the Italian Competition Authority (“AGCM” or “ICA”) launched an investigation to determine whether the Italian Football Federation (Federazione Italian Giuoco Calcio, or “FIGC”) abused a dominant position in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the (...)
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On March 21, 2023, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM or “ ICA”) published for market testing a set of commitments proposed by Google LLC (“Google”) to close an investigation for abuse of dominance under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) and the (...)
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On December 27, 2022, the Italian Competition Authority (the “AGCM” or “Authority”) published a notice (“Notice”) setting forth procedural rules for application of Article 16, paragraph 1-bis, of Law No. 287/90 (“Italian Competition Act”), which was introduced by Article 32 Law No. 118 of (...)
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On November 10, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) handed down its preliminary ruling on Art. 5(1) of Directive 2014/104/EU (the “EU Damages Directive”), concerning the disclosure of evidence in antitrust litigation (the “Preliminary Ruling”). In a nutshell, the (...)
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On October 10, 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) sent a Statement of Objection (“SO”) to Teva accusing the company of denigrating a competing product and of “regulatory gaming” in management of the life cycle of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone, conduct deemed abusive pursuant (...)
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On September 29, 2022, the European Commission adopted guidelines on the application of EU competition law to the collective agreements of solo self-employed persons (hereinafter referred to as the “Commission Guidelines”), with the aim of defining when solo self-employed persons can (...)
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On September 6, 2022, the European Commission (the “Commission”) blocked the acquisition of Grail by Illumina—although the deal didn’t meet the turnover threshold of the EU or any Member State—arguing that the merger would have prevented innovation and competition in the blood-based early (...)
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This article has been nominated for the 2023 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On June 22, 2022, the European Court of Justice (hereinafter, the “ECJ”) issued a judgement in Case C-267/20 clarifying the temporal application of certain (...)
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On May 10, 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) adopted Regulation 2022/720, i.e., the new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (“New VBER”), together with the new Vertical Guidelines (“New Guidelines”), both of which will enter into force on June 1, 2022. The new VBER concludes the (...)
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On April 12, 2022, the Italian Competition Authority (the AGCM or “ICA”), following a formal investigation for the review of remedies imposed upon a concentration, revoked the measures that it had imposed on SKY Italian Holding SpA (“SKY”)—the leading pay-TV broadcaster in Italy—to offset the (...)
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On February 2, 2022, the General Court ruled in Case T-616/18 dismissing the action brought by a wholesaler active in the gas sector in Poland (PGNG) to annul the Commission’s decision in CASE AT.39816 – Upstream gas supplies in Central and Eastern Europe (the “Commitment Decision”), which (...)
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On February 1, 2022, the Italian Competition Authority (the “AGCM” or the “Authority”) issued its decision in case No. I835, opened in 2019, concerning anti-competitive agreements among companies operating in the water meter market (more information on the proceedings available here). The (...)
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On January 20, 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) published its final report closing the sector inquiry launched in July 2020 on the consumer Internet of Things (“IoT”). The report gives an overview of trends and competition issues in the European landscape. It is based on answers (...)
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In May 2021, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM or ICA) launched an investigation into restrictions on resale prices that a pharmaceutical company, SOFAR, was alleged to have imposed upon its distribution network for a probiotic product (Enterolactis Plus). In Europe, agreements or (...)
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On December 30, 2021, the Joint Section of the Italian Court of Cassation (which is the last-instance court for civil matters) issued a landmark judgment clarifying the criteria to determine the civil law consequences of “downstream” contracts with respect to an upstream framework (...)
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On December 21, 2021, the Italian administrative court of first instance (“TAR Lazio”), which has jurisdiction to review the decisions of the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM or “ICA”), annulled a resolution from the latter to grant the alleged victim of an antitrust infringement access to (...)
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On December 9, 2021, the Italian competition authority (the “ICA” or “AGCM”) has levied its highest ever administrative fine—€1.128 billion—on Amazon Europe Core S.à r.l., Amazon Services Europe S.à .r.l., Amazon EU S.à r.l., Amazon Italia Services S.r.l., and Amazon Italia Logistica S.r.l. (...)
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On November 12, the European Commission (“Commission”) fined automotive manufacturers—namely Daimler, BMW, and the Volkswagen Group (collectively, the “Undertakings”)—for a total amount of EUR 875,189,000 for breach of Article 101(1) of the Treaty of Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) (...)
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On October 6, 2021, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “ECJ” or “Court”) issued a long-awaited decision in case C-882/19, Sumal SL (“Sumal”) v Mercedes Benz Trucks España SL (“MBTE”). The judgment shed light on whether, under EU competition law, the victim of (...)
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On July 9, 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) published the draft revised Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (“Draft VBER”) and related Vertical Guidelines, which are now subject to public consultation through September 17, 2021. Based on the overall body of evidence gathered during (...)
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On May 13, 2021, the Italian Competition Authority (the “AGCM” or the “ICA”) fined Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, and Google Italy S.r.l. (“Google”) over 100 million EUR for abusing of a dominant position pursuant to Section 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”). In a (...)
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On March 30, 2021, the Italian Competition Authority (hereinafter the “ICA” or the “Authority”) closed an investigation it had opened in 2018 against three manufacturers of high-end diagnostic imaging devices. It did so without a finding of infringement of competition law (namely, of abusing a (...)
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On March 25, 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) ruled on appeal in the Lundbeck case, confirming the previous judgement of the General Court (GC) that upheld the decision of the European Commission (Commission) on pharmaceutical “pay-for-delay” agreements (Case AT.39226 — (...)
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The European Commission has released new guidance for European contracting authorities on how to use EU law to address suspected cases of collusion in public procurement (the “Notice”). The Notice, published on March 13, 2021, provides Member States with a set of tools to fight collusion in (...)
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The European Commission has released new guidance for European contracting authorities on how to use EU law to address suspected cases of collusion in public procurement (the “Notice”). The Notice, published on March 13, 2021, provides Member States with a set of tools to fight collusion in (...)
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Over the course of less than two months, in late 2020 and early 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Commission (Commission) issued two decisions with diametrically opposed effects on the licensing and business model of copyrighted content across the EEA. (...)
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On November 25, 2020, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) opened an investigation regarding the Benetton Group (“Benetton”) and its suspected abuse of economic dependence pursuant to Sec. 9, para. 3 bis, of Law No 192 of June 18, 1998, in relation to two franchising agreements with (...)
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On November 25, 2020, the Court of Justice (“ECJ”) rendered its judgment in Case C-327/19, stating that the fee structure for music played at festivals adopted by the Belgian collecting society SABAM is not necessarily abusive under Article 102 TFEU. The case originated with a request for a (...)
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The Court of Justice of the European Union, in Case 59/19, ruled that, to challenge a possible abuse of dominant position, a hotel using an online booking platform is entitled to bring proceedings against that platform before a court of the Member State where the hotel is established, (...)
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The Italian Competition Authority opened an investigation into a potential anti-competitive agreement in connection with the creation of a joint venture between two copyright collecting societies. On November 3, 2020, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM or the “ICA”) opened a formal (...)
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In October 2019, the Italian Competition Authority (hereinafter the “ICA” or the “Authority”) launched an investigation into abuse of dominance pursuant to Article 102 TFEU against Leadiant Biosciences Ltd (formerly Sigma Tau Rare Disease Ltd) and other companies in the Leadiant group (...)
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On November 17, we hosted a webinar on distribution and vertical agreements in EU competition law. The aim was to provide a cross-border and multi-jurisdictional perspective on such issues thanks to the participation of distinguished colleagues from Blomstein (Berlin) and Kramer Levin (Paris). (...)
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On October 5, 2020, the General Court of the European Union partially annulled decisions of the European Commission ordering dawn raids on the premises of French supermarkets Casino and Intermarché and their joint purchasing alliance INCA Auchats (see cases T-249/17, T-254/17 and T-255/17). (...)
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Summary: The CJEU has established that the market concentration thresholds set forth by Article 43(11) of Legislative Decree No. 177/05, and based on the overall revenues of the so called “Integrated System of Communications,” are inadequate to detect or prevent the risk for pluralism and thus (...)
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The protection of confidential information is an issue of increasing importance in today’s business relationships, as well as in cases of litigation before the courts. Indeed, the issue not only arises in connection with modern business contracts, where the parties may exchange in real time (...)
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On June 2 and 3, 2020, the European Commission launched two public consultations concerning firstly a “Digital Services Act” package and secondly a “New Competition Tool” in order to bring EU legal toolkits in line with the latest economic and technological developments. (...)
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On May 27, 2020, for the first time the Italian Competition Authority (“AGCM”) applied its communication on cooperation agreements in the context of the COVID-19 emergency (“Italian Communication”), applicable since April 24, 2020. Two national associations of pharmaceutical distributors (...)
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On April 8, 2020, the European Commission (“Commission”) published a communication containing a temporary framework for assessing antitrust issues related to business cooperation in response to situations of urgency stemming from the current COVID-19 outbreak (“European Communication”). At the (...)
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The fact that the Italian Competition Authority (“AGCM”) has taken vigorous action to counteract unfair commercial practices exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic is well known and has already been commented upon. Nonetheless, two specific decisions—Oxystore (PS11732) and Tigershop (...)
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The Italian Competition Authority once again criticizes the introduction of legislative provisions that reserve only to pharmacies the provision of certain public health services paid by the NHS The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM or ICA) with letter dated 10 March 2020 sent to the (...)
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Last decisions adopted at the beginning of 2020 by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM or ICA; see cases I820 – Fatturazione mensile con rimodulazione tariffaria and A514 – Condotte fibra Telecom Italia ) confirm that the ICA pays utmost attention on the application of the criteria laid (...)
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On February 10, 2020 the Italian Authorities for Communications, Competition and Data Protection published the findings of a joint sector inquiry into the field of Big Data (“Investigation”), which lasted almost three years. It was launched on May 30, 2017 to study the functioning and impact (...)
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On January 14, 2020, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) launched a preliminary investigation based on a number of complaints filed against Mediterranea Marittima S.p.a., Medmar Navi S.p.a., Servizi Marittimi Liberi Giuffré & Lauro S.r.l. and Tra.Spe.Mar. S.r.l, GML Trasporti (...)
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On January 13, 2020, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a former senior vice president of cargo sales and marketing for Martinair N.V. (Martinair Cargo) and a Dutch national, had been extradited from Italy to the United States to face price-fixing charges. (...)
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On March 25, 2019, the European Commission announced the € 12,555,000 fine issued to Nike for breaching European Union and European Economic Area (EEA) competition rules through its licensing and distribution agreements with resellers, more specifically for prohibiting merchants from making (...)
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According to the ICA’s preliminary findings, Google’s refusal to integrate a “vertical” e-mobility app into the Android Auto system may be unjustified and significantly limit the usefulness and usability of that app since the driver could only use it when the vehicle is stationary. This (...)
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By Decision of April 24, 2019, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has ascertained that three undertakings had rigged tenders for the Italian Football League (IFL) for the award of international broadcasting rights from 2008/2009 to 2016/2017. This finding, theoretically, could lead to (...)
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According to the ICA’s preliminary findings, Amazon only granted sellers using Amazon’s own fulfillment and logistics services (FBA) advantages in terms of offer visibility and sales improvement on the Amazon marketplace, in comparison to sellers that are not customers of Amazon’s FBA services (...)
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On March 25, 2019, the European Commission announced the € 12,555,000 fine issued to Nike for breaching European Union and European Economic Area (EEA) competition rules through its licensing and distribution agreements with resellers, more specifically for prohibiting merchants from making (...)
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On March 14, 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a landmark judgment in a preliminary referral from the Korkein Oikeus (the Finnish Supreme Court), addressing several pillars of EU competition law (case C-724/17, Vantaa v. Skanska Industrial Solutions and others). (...)
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According to the ICA’s preliminary findings, Amazon only granted sellers using Amazon’s own fulfillment and logistics services (FBA) advantages in terms of offer visibility and sales improvement on the Amazon marketplace, in comparison to sellers that are not customers of Amazon’s FBA services (...)
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On December 17, 2018, the European Commission imposed a € 40 million fine on the US-based clothing company Guess for enacting contractual provisions and practices in its selective network of authorized wholesalers, monobrand and multi-brand retailers, contrary to Article 101(1) of the Treaty (...)
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On December 17, 2018, the European Commission imposed a € 40 million fine on the US-based clothing company Guess for enacting contractual provisions and practices in its selective network of authorized wholesalers, monobrand and multi-brand retailers, contrary to Article 101(1) of the Treaty (...)
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The Servier judgments: patent settlements may be deemed “pay-for-delay” agreements, and thus by-object infringements of Article 101 TFEU only if Commission substantiates strong indication of “reverse payment” or “abnormal inducement” from the originator to the generic; further, the originator (...)
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In January 2018 the AGCM launched an investigation for a possible breach of Article 101 TFEU against two international manufacturers of blood-based pharmaceuticals – Kedrion S.p.A (“Kedrion”) and Grifols Italia S.p.A (“Grifols”) – for participating as a joint venture to a public tender (issued (...)
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On 25 September 2018, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (Italian Competition Authority – AGCM) condemned the Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers –SIAE) to pay a symbolic fine of EUR 1 000 for abusing its dominant position in (...)
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On May 18, 2017, the European Commission (the Commission) sent a “statement of objections” to Altice – a Netherlands-based multinational company operating in the telecommunications (TLC) sector – alleging that it breached the EU Merger Regulation (Regulation N. 139/04, or EUMR) by implementing (...)
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On January 23rd, 2018, the ECJ delivered its preliminary ruling on theRoche/Novartis v. Commissioncase (C-179/16), concerning the compatibility of an agreement entered into between Roche and Novartis with Article 101 TFEU. The controversy originated before of the ICA, which on 27 February (...)
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On 20 December 2017, the Italian Competition Authority (or “ICA”) issued a rare infringement decision in an abuse of dominance investigation against the publisher of a local daily newspaper (“SIE”), which refused to deal with a player (the “complainant” or “Euregio”) in the downstream local (...)
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On August 29th, 2017, a long-awaited reform of the Italian turnover thresholds for merger control has entered into force following publication of law N. 124 of 4 August 2017 on the Official Journal (occurred on August 14th). The new turnover thresholds are immediately applicable to all (...)
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On 29 September 2016, the Italian Competition Authority (the AGCM or ICA) fined the Aspen Group (Aspen) €5m for a violation of article 102(a) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The ICA upheld in particular that the manner and level at which Aspen renegotiated prices for a (...)
