Denis is Head of Office of Ashurst Brussels and partner in the Competition and EU Law department. His practice focuses on all aspects of Italian and EU antitrust law. Denis has 20 years’ experience in advising leading European corporates in relation to behavioural and merger control cases. He also has significant experience in assisting companies in State Aid investigations. Denis regularly represents clients before both the European Commission and national competition authorities in Italy, Belgium, etc. as well as the EU General Court and Court of Justice in antitrust and other EU law proceedings. He acts for leading clients in several industry sectors, such as energy, financial services, pharmaceutical and automotive.
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1. Introduction* De minimis non curat praetor (the judge does not deal with trivial matters) was already the rule in Roman law around 2,000 years ago. So why would e-competitions care about de minimis to such a point that it is dedicating a full issue to the question? In truth, the question of (...)
341
Background The judgement in comment (Judgement of TAR of Lazio n. 6171 of 11 July 2011) has annulled the final decision of the Italian Antitrust Authority ("IAA") of 3 November 2010 ("IAA Decision") which closed the proceeding against Mastercard and eight Italian banks ( the "Parties") and (...)
238
Introduction On 20 April 2011, the Italian Competition Authority ("ICA") adopted a decision closing the investigation launched in May 2010 against nine oil companies, Alma Petroli S.p.A., Api-Anonima Petroli Italiana S.p.A., ERG Petroli S.p.A., Eni S.p.A., Esso Italiana S.r.l., IES-Italiana (...)
844
Background On March 24, 2010, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) issued its first cartel decision based on a leniency application, approximately 3 years after the ICA officially adopted its Leniency Program. The case concerns a ten-year cartel between the three main Italian suppliers of (...)
1888
Background With two decisions issued on 22 April 2009, the Italian Administrative Tribunal (Tribunale Amministrativo Regonale, “TAR”) ruled on the power of the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) to accept commitments offered by undertakings under investigation for alleged anticompetitive (...)
1590
Background On 5 March 2009, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, “AGCM”) launched an investigation for possible violation of Article 82 EC and Article 3 of Law 10 October 1990 n° 287 (corresponding to Article 82 EC) by Saint-Gobain Ppc Italia S.p.A. (...)
1445
Background On 26 February 2009, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) fined 26 pasta producers active in Italy (representing approximately 90% of the overall relevant market) and two associations of undertakings claiming that they had entered into an agreement aimed at increasing the prices (...)
728
Background On 29 January 2009, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) cleared the acquisition of the sole control of Castorama Italia S.p.A. (“Castorama”) by the French company Groupe Adeo S.A. (“Adeo”), both active in the retail sale of “do-it-yourself” (“DIY”) products. The merger met the (...)
1497
Background On 20 September 2007, the ICA opened a proceeding regarding car assistance services provided in Italy on motorways, alleging that a) the motorways companies had breached Article 3 of Law 287/90 (national provision similar to art. 82 EC) and b) the roadside assistance providers, (...)
1119
Background By decision of 21 May 2008, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) fined Parmalat S.p.A. (“Parmalat”, one of the major Italian players in the milk and dairy sector) for not having complied with the measures imposed by a previous merger decision. The peculiarity of this case is linked (...)
2946
Background On 15 May 2008, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato) closed the investigation launched in July 2007 for possible violations of Article 81 and/or 82 EC by the Italian Equestrian Sports Federation (Federazione Italiana Sport Equestri) (...)
1655
Background On 24 October 2007, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato) fined two leading producers of autoclaved cellular concrete (ACC), namely Xella International GmbH (Xella) and RDB S.p.A. (RDB) alleging that they had entered into some form of (...)
1382
Introduction On 3 August 2007, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) adopted a decision fining four ostomy device manufacturers for an alleged bid rigging. The decision is interesting as it shows the difficulty that pharmaceutical companies face when participating in a tender procedure. In (...)
1170
Background ABI is a non-profit association to which nearly all Italian banks belong. In August 2006, the Italian Banking Law (Legislative Decree n° 385/1993) was amended by Law n° 248/2006. Art. 10 of Law n° 248/2006, which lays down provisions that banks have to respect when changing (...)
3003
Background ABI is a non-profit association to which nearly all Italian banks belong. In August 2006, the Italian Banking Law (Legislative Decree n° 385/1993) was amended by Law n° 248/2006. Art. 10 of Law n° 248/2006, which lays down provisions that banks have to respect when changing (...)
690
Background By decision of 15 June 2005, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato) cleared the acquisition by Koninklijke Numico N.V. (Numico) of Mellin S.p.A. (Mellin). The concentration affected the baby milk sector which the Authority’s investigations (...)
2020
Background On 16 November 2004, the Italian Competition Authority(Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato) has imposed a fine of € 152 million on the incumbent telecommunication operator Telecom Italia S.p.A. (Telecom Italia), for abusive behaviours on the fixed network (...)
2089
Background With decision n. 13459 of 29 July 2004, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, hereinafter “Authority”) has imposed a fine of € 95 million on Tetra Pak International S.A. (“Tetra Pak”), the global leader in the manufacture of packaging for (...)
1525
Background On 29 April 2004, the Italian Antitrust Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato) cleared the acquisition by the national public broadcaster, Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A. (Rai), of 11 going concerns composed of 84 digital broadcasting networks, including the (...)
2192
Background Following a specific request by the parties, the Italian Antitrust Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato), at its meeting on 12 June 2003, decided to revoke the conditions originally imposed on Premafin Finanziaria S.p.A. (Premafin) and Mediobanca Banca di (...)
3147
Background With decision n. 8491 of 13 July 2000, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (Italian Competition Authority, hereinafter “Authority”) found the existence of a market sharing arrangement carried out within the Consorzio Industrie Fiammiferi (the consortium of the Italian (...)
2246
Background On 13 November 1997 the ICA issued its first decision regarding the compatibility of a franchise contract with the prohibition of anticompetitive agreements. The agreement which was assessed by the ICA regarded the franchising network set up by Il Tucano Franchising for the retail (...)
404
Several contributions lodged within the framework of the public consultation on a possible review of Regulation 1/2003 have claimed, sometimes vigorously, that the European Commission should seek to reform Regulation 1/2003 in a manner that does not only focus on strengthening the powers of the (...)
378
Mathias TRAUB, head of the antitrust department at one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers, discusses his work as an-house counsel, the challenges of this position and notably, how it differs from his previous experience in private practice. Interview conducted by Denis Fosselard, (...)
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2015 Competition Case Law Digest - A Synthesis of EU and National Leading Cases
This second edition of the Digest is enriched with a selection of more than 50 essays on European competition cases from the 27 European Union Member States, EU law, and US law. Each essay (...)
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