As a member of the EU & Competition Group in Italy, Federico practice areas stretch from antitrust and regulatory proceedings, to administrative and commercial litigation, with in-depth expertise in TMT law and regulation. He lectures on Internet and media law at the Scuola Nazionale dell’Amministrazione in Italy and often write on antitrust and TMT law in the leading legal journals. He has also co-written one of Italy’s leading textbooks on ecommunications law. Before joining Bird & Bird in 2016, he was a legal officer at the Italian Communications Authority, as well as a senior associate in the Rome and Brussels offices of another international law firm for 11 years, focusing on antitrust cases, administrative and commercial litigation and on counselling in regulatory proceedings.
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On 25 May 2021, the Italian Antitrust Authority (“AGCM”) issued a landmark judgment in a proceeding for unfair commercial practices in the distribution and selling of patented seedless grapes in Italy. The proceeding represents one of the few of its kind, not only for the close interlink between (...)
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On 27 April 2021, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) fined Google for its refusal to publish an app developed by Enel X Italia (“JuicePass”) on Android Auto allowing electric vehicle drivers to search and book an electric charging point while driving. Android Auto is a specific feature (...)
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Alongside its enforcement powers, the Italian Competition Authority (the “Authority”) also has a legislative advisory role where it issues proposals to the Italian Government, in view of the annual competition law. The Authority’s 2021 recommendations, issued on 23 March mostly relate to areas in (...)
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On 18 March 2021, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court (“Consiglio di Stato” or “CdS”) wrote a new episode in the long-lasting Hoffman La Roche - Novartis saga related to the Avastin drug, which may have serious repercussions on the relationship between EU and national judges. To recall, in (...)
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On 2 February 2021, the Italian National Competition Authority (“AGCM”) opened an investigation against the Italian Society for Authors and Publishers (“SIAE”) – organisation responsible for the collective management of copyright in Italy – and various trade associations with a view to ascertain the (...)
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On 28 December 2020, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court (Consiglio di Stato – "CDS") issued a judgment marking the last act in the national judicial dispute related to the assignment of the Lega Serie A (i.e. the main national professional league in Italy – "the League") broadcasting rights (...)
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On 22 December 2020, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) issued an important decision fining CTS Eventim €10.9 million for having implemented an unlawful exclusive strategy in the Italian market of pop music events ticket sellers. In September 2018, the AGCM launched an investigation (...)
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In October 2020, the General Court of the European Union (GC) issued an important decision in the joined Casino cases which promises to ensure that competition investigations will be more robust and afford greater protection to companies‘ rights. Both the European Commission (EC) and companies (...)
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The Geo-blocking Regulation came into force on 22 March 2018. It provides that the Member States shall lay down the rules setting out the measures applicable to infringements of the Geo-blocking Regulation and the enforcement of these provisions falls within the jurisdiction of national (...)
175
On 22 July, the Italian Competition Authority (the "ICA") announced it had opened an investigation against Apple and Amazon for an alleged violation of article 101 TFEU. Following a complaint received in February 2019 from a retailer who was banned from reselling products on the Amazon market, (...)
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On 20 July, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court (Consiglio di Stato, CDS) referred to the Court of Justice (CJ) several questions concerning the interpretation and application of Article 102 TFEU. In the context of the dispute following the Italian Competition Authority’s decision to (...)
35
By decision of 23 March 2020, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has updated the turnover thresholds that make prior notification of a concentration mandatory, pursuant to Article 16, par. 1, of Law No. 287 of 1990 ("Law"). According to Article 16, par. 1 of the Law, as amended, a (...)
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On 13 March, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court ("Consiglio di Stato") rejected the appeal lodged by the multinational Aspen Group against the decision of the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio (“TAR”), which fully upheld the decision adopted by the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) (...)
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The Italian Antitrust Authority ("ICA") launched in June 2017 a proceeding for alleged violations of Article 102 TFEU committed by Telecom Italia ("TI") - through a complex abusive strategy aimed at a double purpose: in the retail market, to make its customer base less contestable by other (...)
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On 7 February 2018, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) initiated an investigation against the major fixed and mobile operators (TIM S.p.A, Vodafone Italia S.p.A, Fastweb S.p.A and Wind Tre S.p.A). The investigation was aimed at verifying whether the companies had coordinated their (...)
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On 23 December, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court ("Consiglio di Stato") accepted the appeals lodged by several companies active in the supply of technical ancillary services and the incumbent network owner, Telecom Italia S.p.A., against the rulings of the Regional Administrative Court (...)
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On 12 November, the Italian Supreme Court brought to an end a multi-jurisdictional dispute which began in 2008, related to the Ryanair’s refusal to grant online travel agencies ("OTAs") the right to intermediate its tickets by accessing its databases and procedures for flight reservations. On 4 (...)
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On 17 October 2019, the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio (“TAR”) issued its judgment on the appeal lodged by Enel Group against the decision of the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) issued on 20 December 2018. The ICA had fined the company over EUR 93 million for abusing its dominant (...)
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On 26 September 2019, the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio (“TAR”) rejected the appeal lodged by the Italian Authors’ and Publishers’ Association (the “SIAE”) against the decision of the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) taken on 25 September 2018. In this decision, the Authority had (...)
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On July 17th, the Council of State dismissed the appeals presented by F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. and Roche S.p.A. ("Roche") and from Novartis Farma S.p.A. and Novartis AG ("Novartis") against the judgement issued by Regional Administrative Court of First Instance rejecting the appeals against the (...)
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On 20th May 2019, the Italian Competition Authority (the "AGCM") cleared the merger between Sky Italia S.r.l.’s ("SKY") and R2 S.r.l. ("R2"), a company formerly owned by Mediaset Premium S.p.A. ("MP") and providing technical and administrative platform services for broadcasting by means of (...)
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On 8 May 2019, the Italian Competition Authority ("AGCM") opened an investigation against Alphabet Inc., Google LLC and Google Italy S.r.l. (indicated together as Google) to ascertain an alleged abuse of a dominant position in breach of Article 102 TFEU. Google, via the Android operating (...)
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On April 10 2019, the Italian Competition Authority ("AGCM") launched an investigation against five companies of the Amazon Group, namely Amazon Services Europe S.à r.l., Amazon Europe Core S.à r.l., Amazon EU S.à r.l., Amazon Italy Services S.r.l. and Amazon Italy Logistics S.r.l., for an alleged (...)
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On 7 March 2019, the Italian Competition Authority ("AGCM") opened an in-depth investigation (phase II) to assess the proposed acquisition of R2 S.r.l., the Operation Pay branch of Mediaset Premium, by Sky Italia S.r.l. and Sky Italian Holdings S.p.A. The investigation is aimed at examining (...)
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On 21 February 2019, the Italian Competition Authority ("AGCM") concluded two proceedings - launched in September and October 2018 - against the low cost airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air,. The two investigations showed that, from 1 November 2018 onwards, passengers of the two companies were only (...)
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On 8 January 2019, the Italian Competition Authority ("AGCM") fined Enel (the national former incumbent in the electricity sector) for over EUR 93 million and Acea (the Rome municipality utility company) for over EUR 16 million for abusing dominance in regulated retail energy markets to gain (...)
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