Irene Picciano is a partner at Portolano Cavallo based in Milan. She joined Portolano Cavallo in 2019, mainly responsible for competition and EU law as well as product, trade and corporate compliance matters. In the area of competition and European law in general, Irene has many years of experience in negotiation and self-assessment of horizontal and vertical agreements under the relevant EU Block Exemption Regulations, including distribution and agency agreements, procurement and long-term supply, production and specialisation agreements, licensing agreements, joint ventures, etc. She also deals with merger and acquisition assessments and notifications, assistance with internal audits and investigations (including “dawn-raids”), compliance programs, proceedings before national and EU authorities and courts in cartel and abuse of dominance cases. She has overseen numerous proceedings for preliminary rulings before the Court of Justice of the European Union on the subject of fundamental freedoms under the EU Treaty and worked on state aid complaints and structural fund issues. Irene has also accrued extensive experience on specific aspects of compliance, not only on antitrust matters and on issues involving the Organizational Model under Legislative Decree No. 231/2001, but also on complex product and trade compliance issues, such as the release for free circulation and related customs aspects, marketing authorizations, export control, dual use, antidumping procedures, labelling, EC marking and related policies. She has gained experience in different industries, particularly in the fashion/luxury, life sciences, automotive, food & beverage and consumer goods industries. Irene graduated in law from the University of Salerno in 1994, and was subsequently awarded a Master’s Degree specializing in European Union Law, Economics and Policies from the European College of Parma. Prior to joining Portolano Cavallo, she was a partner at De Berti Jacchia from 2005 and co-headed its Brussels office, where she was located from 1999 to 2001. She has authored more than 150 legal and academic publications (published, amongst others, in “Rivista di diritto comunitario e degli scambi internazionali”, “Giustizia Civile”, “Le Società” e “I Contratti” IPSOA), and is a Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) to the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition within the International Competition Network (ICN). She speaks regularly at seminars, conferences and specialist undergraduate and post-graduate university courses on the areas of her expertise. Irene is a member of the Union des Avocats Européennes, the European Law Institute and the Italian Antitrust Association in Brussels and is also co-head of the Corporate Compliance Group within ASLA (Italian Association of Associated Law Firms). Irene has been a Supreme Court attorney since 2012.
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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 April 27, 2023, the European Commission published its revised draft “Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on standard essential patents and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1001” (“SEP Draft Proposal”—more information and text available here). The SEP Draft (...)
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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 February 27, 2023, the Italian Competition Authority announced to have launched its own whistleblowing platform for reporting antitrust violations (eg, secret agreements on product prices, market sharing, competitor boycotts, etc.,). Using the platform, whistleblowers can report potential (...)
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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 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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Distribution and after-sales service agreements in the motor vehicle sector are currently governed by Regulation (EU) No. 461/2010 of May 27, 2010 on the application of Article 101 para. 3 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) to categories of vertical agreements and (...)
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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 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 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 DECEMBER 24, 2020, the European Commission reached an agreement with the United Kingdom on the terms of its future cooperation with the European Union. The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), provisionally applicable as of January 1, 2021, rests on three main pillars, which are (...)
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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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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 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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On September 8, 2020, the European Commission (“Commission”) published a proposal for a Council and European Parliament regulation to eliminate duties on certain products imported to the European Union (full text accessible here). In return, the United States will reduce its duties on certain (...)
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Starting August 1, 2020, a new trade regime between the European Union and Vietnam has entered into force and as a consequence European exports to Vietnam are now taxed less. The Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Vietnam (“Trade Agreement” — full text accessible here) is (...)
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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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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 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. (...)
