McDermott Will & Emery (Paris)

Frédéric Pradelles

McDermott Will & Emery (Paris)
Partner

Frédéric Pradelles is a partner in the Paris office of Mcdermott Will & Emery. He was previously a partner at Latham & Watkins. He specializes in French and European competition law, in contentious and non-contentious matters, and regularly advises clients on cartels and abuse of dominant position cases, notably in the context of litigation matters before the jurisdictions or competition authorities, antitrust investigations, and setting up of antitrust compliance programs. Mr. Pradelles assists clients in the context of European and French merger control cases, including in Phase II cases and coordinates multi-jurisdictional filings. Mr. Pradelles has developed strong experience in the setting up of strategic alliance, joint venture, and commercial contracts and distribution (distribution networks, selective, and exclusive distribution). On the litigation side, he represents clients before the competition authorities, EC and French jurisdictions, and the French Supreme Courts (Cour de Cassation and Conseil d’Etat). He also represents clients in engagement procedures. Mr. Pradelles advises clients active in various economic sectors, particularly in industry, distribution, media, hotel, paper, finance, and information technology. He is a member of the APDC’s board of directors (Association des avocats Pratiquant le Droit de la Concurrence) which comprises about 200 experienced lawyers in competition, and a member of the AFEC (Association Française d’Etude de la Concurrence). Before joining the firm, Mr. Pradelles worked in the antitrust and trade group department of a Magic Circle firm.

Auteurs associés

McDermott Will & Emery (Paris)
McDermott Will & Emery (Los Angeles)
McDermott Will & Emery (Paris)
McDermott Will & Emery (Brussels)
McDermott Will & Emery (Brussels)

Articles

3401 Bulletin

Jacques Buhart, Christian Krohs, Hendrik Viaene, Frédéric Pradelles, Stéphane Dionnet The EU Court of Justice holds that the General Court erred in law and clarifies several key concepts in the interpretation of merger control rules including standard of proof, “important competitive force”, and “closeness of competition” (Telefónica UK / Hutchison 3G UK)

47

In July 2023, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) annulled the General Court of the European Union’s judgment from 2020. That 2020 judgment, appealed by CK Telecom, had overturned the European Commission’s decision to prohibit CK Telecom’s acquisition of Telefonica UK business in 2016. The (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Christian Krohs, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene The EU Commission adopts a legislative package to further streamline the simplified merger control procedures within the bloc

107

The EU Commission has adopted a legislative package to further streamline the simplified merger control procedures within the European Union On April 20, 2023, the EU Commission (Commission) adopted and published a package to simplify the procedures for reviewing concentrations under (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner The EU Commission sees the DMA enter into force to ensure contestable and fair markets in the digital sector

63

The European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (Digital Markets Act or “DMA”) entered into force on November 1, 2022 (OJ L 265, 12.10.2022, p. 1). Certain provisions of a preparatory nature apply as from that date. The (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Lea Hauser The EU Court of Justice delivers a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the product scope of a cartel, with practical significance for follow-on damages actions before national courts (Daimler / DAF Trucks)

40

On August 1, 2022 the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) gave a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the product scope of a cartel found to exist by the EU Commission (EC) in its Decision dated July 19, 2016, C (2016) 4673 final, in Case AT.39824 – Trucks (the Decision). This Decision led (...)

Nabil Lakhal, Andrea Otaola, Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner The EU General Court confirms that the Commission may assess mergers that do not meet the required thresholds if a Member State refers the transaction under Art. 22 EUMR (Illumina / Grail)

35

The GCEU upheld the decision of the EC accepting a referral request from France, as joined by other Member States, asking it to assess the proposed acquisition of GRAIL by Illumina (Judgment of July 13, 2022, Case T-227/21, Illumina, Inc ; v Commission). Background On September 21, 2020, (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner The EU Court of Justice maintains a fine on cartelists notwithstanding the fact that the court partially annuls the fining decision because of procedural errors on the part of the Commission (Optical Disk Drives Cartel)

20

Summary The CJEU on June 16, 2022, partially annulled a EC decision due to a procedural breach, whilst maintaining the imposed EUR 116 million fine. The CJEU found that the EC’s decision did not give the companies opportunity to rebut all infringements separately. At the same time, the (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Philip Bentley The EU General Court annuls the Commission’s decision regarding a dominant chip manufacturer as a result of insufficient analysis of anticompetitive effects and on procedural grounds (Qualcomm)

39

On June 15, 2022, the EU General Court (GCEU) annulled the EU Commission’s (EC) decision C (2018) 240 final dated January 24, 2018 in Case AT.40220 in which the EC had imposed a fine of EUR 997.439 million on Qualcomm Inc. (Qualcomm) for having allegedly abused its dominant position on the (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner The EU Commission sees its updated Vertical Block Exemption Regulation enter into force, to enable effective governing of companies in the digital age

66

In last year’s EU Competition Review, we reported on the draft of the new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER). On June 1, 2022, the new VBER finally entered into force. At the same time, the EC published a revised version of the accompanying Vertical Guidelines. These two instruments (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner The EU General Court upholds the Commission’s decision implementing a €28M fine for gun jumping in the merger of two imaging product manufacturers (Cannon / Toshiba)

39

On June 27, 2019, the EC imposed two fines totaling EUR 28 million on Canon in the context of its acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (TMSC). The first fine of EUR 14 million was levied for Canon’s failure to notify the EC prior to the implementation of the transaction in (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Hannelore Wiame The EU General Court decides to reduce the fines for certain undertakings in an airfreight cartel (Airfreight Cartel)

50

Procedural and Factual Background On November 9, 2010, the EU Commission (EC) imposed fines (totaling nearly EUR 800 million) on multiple air freight carriers for their participation in the “air freight cartel” (the 2010 Decision). The case was opened following an immunity application made (...)

Jacques Buhart, Frédéric Pradelles, Mary Hecht The Paris Court of Appeal rules that a Big Tech firm did not abruptly terminate a contract with an advertising partner because the termination was objectively justified and a legitimate exercise of commercial freedom (Ulysse / Google)

603

On March 11, 2022, the Paris Court of Appeals overturned in its entirety a May 31, 2019 judgment of the Paris Commercial Court, which had ordered Google to compensate an advertiser, Ulysse Service (’Ulysse’), for the abrupt termination of established commercial relationships. In this case, the (...)

Jacques Buhart, Stéphane Dionnet, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner, Nabil Lakhal, Andrea Otaola The EU General Court annuls a €1.06B fine on a chip-maker for concluding conditional rebates, emphasising the critical role that economic analysis plays in rebate cases (Intel)

29

At the start of the year, companies offering or considering offering rebates were given further guidance on the limits of such practices. The GCEU’s judgment of January 26, 2022 annulled the EUR 1.06 billion fine against Intel Corporation (Intel) in the 2009 EC decision. The judgment is the (...)

Frédéric Pradelles, Mary Hecht The EU General Court confirms the EU Commission’s decision to fine a Big Tech company for abusing its dominant position in online search by discriminating against comparison shopping services to favour its own offering (Google Shopping)

282

Google’s flagship product is the Google search engine, which provides search results to consumers, who pay for the service with their data. Almost 90% of Google’s revenues stem from adverts, such as those it shows consumers in response to a search query. In 2004, Google entered the separate (...)

Philip Bentley, Jacques Buhart, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, David Henry, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner The EU Commission investigates a merger between two genomics companies (Illumina / Grail)

249

The EC’s review of Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL raises two novel issues : the assertion of jurisdiction by the EC over transactions that do not meet any national or EU jurisdictional merger control tests, and the use of interim measures to stop parties closing a transaction where the EC has (...)

Frédéric Pradelles, Mary Hecht The EU Court of Justice dismisses an appeal from a member of the Car Battery Cartel requesting leniency on the grounds that they did not provide novel information (Recylex)

61

On 3 June 2021, the CJEU issued a judgment rejecting Recylex’s appeal against the GCEU’s dismissal of Recylex’s challenge to the EC’s infringement decision in the car battery recycling cartel. By this decision the EC rejected Recylex’s request for an increase in leniency reduction beyond the (...)

Philip Bentley, Jacques Buhart, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, David Henry, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner, Karolien Van der Putten The EU Commission fines investment banks €371M for participating in a European bonds trading cartel (Bank of America / Natixis / RBS / UBS / UniCredit / WestLB)

118

By decision of 20 May 2021, the EC found that Bank of America, Natixis, Nomura, RBS (now NatWest), UBS, UniCredit and WestLB (now Portigon) breached EU antitrust rules through the participation of a group of traders in a cartel on the primary and secondary markets for European Government Bonds (...)

Frédéric Pradelles, Mary Hecht The EU Commission fines a pharmaceutical company €7.5M for providing inaccurate information during review of an acquisition application (Merck / Sigma-Aldrich)

107

On 3 May 2021, the EC fined Sigma-Aldrich EUR 7.5 million for providing incorrect or misleading information during the EC’s review of Merck’s planned acquisition of the company. Background On 21 April 2015, Merck notified the EC of its plan to acquire Sigma-Aldrich. On 15 June 2015, the EC (...)

Philip Bentley, Jacques Buhart, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, David Henry, Mary Hecht The EU Commission imposes fines totalling €48M on 3 railway companies for participating in a cross-border customer allocation cartel (ÖBB / DB / SNCB)

151

On 20 April 2021, the EC issued its settlement decision by which it fined Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Société Nationale des Chemins de fer belges/Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen (SNCB) a total of approximately EUR 48 million for participating in a cross-border customer allocation (...)

Frédéric Pradelles, Mary Hecht The EU Court of Justice upholds the Commission’s fine and affirms that a parent company may be held jointly and severally liable for allocating markets and customers, price fixing, bid rigging and sharing commercially sensitive information (Italmobiliare)

78

On 24 June 2015, the EC fined 10 manufacturers of retail food packaging trays a total of EUR 115.8 million for having participated in a single and continuous infringement consisting of five separate cartels aimed at fixing prices, allocating customers and markets, bid-rigging and exchanging (...)

Philip Bentley, Jacques Buhart, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, David Henry, Mary Hecht, Max Küttner, Karolien Van der Putten The EU Court of Justice dismisses all appeals brought by a Danish pharmaceutical company and five generic manufacturers against the judgments of the General Court and upholds a decision of the Commission on patent settlement agreements between the companies (Lundbeck)

185

On 25 March 2021, the CJEU dismissed all the appeals brought by Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S and five generic manufacturers against the judgments of the GCEU, thus upholding a decision of the EC on patent settlement agreements between Lundbeck and five generic manufacturers (...)

Max Küttner, Mary Hecht, David Henry, Hendrik Viaene, Frédéric Pradelles, Jacques Buhart, Philip Bentley The EU Court of Justice reduces a fine imposed on a steel abrasives cartel on grounds of breach of the principle of equal treatment (Pometon)

110

On 18 March 2021, the CJEU ruled on the appeal by Pometon SpA against the GCEU’s judgment in the steel abrasives cartel case. The CJEU ruled that the GCEU had breached the principle of equal treatment when recalculating the EC’s fine imposed on Pometon, the only non-settling party in this (...)

Frédéric Pradelles, Mary Hecht The EU General Court rejects a rival’s challenge to the Commission’s decision allowing two Dutch cable operators to merge subject to conditions (KPN)

97

On 27 January 2021, the GCEU confirmed the EC’s decision declaring the merger of the two main Dutch cable operators, Ziggo N.V. and Liberty Global Plc, compatible with the internal market, thus rejecting the action introduced by their competitor, KPN BV, a provider of retail television offers (...)

Philip Bentley, Jacques Buhart, Frédéric Pradelles, Hendrik Viaene, David Henry, Mary Hecht The EU Commission imposes fines totalling €7.9M on a digital distribution company and 5 publishers for geo-blocking (Valve / Bandai Namco / Capcom / Focus Home / Koch Media / ZeniMax)

83

On 20 January 2021, the EC fined Valve Corporation and five publishers, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax, a total of EUR 7.9 million for breaching antitrust rules by partitioning the EEA market. Background Valve, together with the five publishers, restricted (...)

Frédéric Pradelles, Mary Hecht The EU Commission rejects a gun jumping complaint by a company subject to a hostile takeover on the grounds that despite the case involving a series of transactions it can be seen as a single concentration and therefore the public bid exemption that is applicable to the second stage applies to the whole transaction (Veolia / Suez)

110

On 17 December 2020, the EC rejected Suez’s gun-jumping claim and provided further clarifications on the scope of the exemption to the standstill obligation in the case of two-step acquisitions encompassing a public bid. Background On 30 August 2020, the French company Veolia announced its (...)

Statistiques


8151
Total des visites

247
Nombre de lectures par contribution

33
Nombre de contributions

Classement de l'auteur
296ème
En nombre de contributions
1217ème
En nombre total de visites
6086ème
En nombre moyen de visites
Envoyer un message