


Assimakis Komninos
Assimakis advises on questions of EU and Greek competition law, EU business regulation, international arbitration, litigation and private international law. He has argued both of the only two competition preliminary reference cases to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) from Greece. His practice focuses on complex cases of abuse of dominance, restrictive agreements and merger notifications, and he represents clients before the European Courts, the European Commission, national competition authorities, national courts and international arbitration tribunals. Clients look to Assimakis for his proven track record and his ability to combine quietly resolving the most sensitive and complex investigations with aggressively litigating to achieve the necessary results. Chambers Global 2020 notes that he has "a solid theoretical background, which means he can handle different complex cases", while Legal 500 2020 lauds him for "his professionalism, proactive mentality and good communication ethos." Assimakis has acted before the ECJ in Syfait v. GlaxoSmithKline and Lélos v. GlaxoSmithKline (parallel trade of pharmaceuticals - abuse of dominance), and in GlaxoSmithKline Services v. Commission (parallel trade of pharmaceuticals - Article 101). He has also been involved before the EU General Court in Microsoft v. Commission (compulsory licensing of interoperability information), GlaxoSmithKline Services v. Commission (parallel trade of pharmaceuticals - application of Article 101), Chalkor Metal Works v. Commission (copper plumbing tubes), Public Power Corporation v. Commission (Greek lignites), EAEPC v. Commission (rejection of a complaint), representing GlaxoSmithKline, Google v. Commission (Google Shopping) and Google v. Commission (Google Android). He also successfully represented Aegean Airlines in Aegean/Olympic II, which resulted in the European Commission clearing the deal in a Phase II proceeding. This was the first time that the Commission cleared a merger after it had previously prohibited it. Assimakis has represented clients with excellent results in proceedings before the Albanian, Croatian, Cypriot, French, Greek, Kosovo, Romanian, Russian and Slovenian competition authorities and Belgian, Bulgarian, Cypriot, French, Greek, Latvian, Spanish and Russian courts. He has particular experience in arbitration cases involving competition issues, and in private antitrust litigation cases in national courts. Assimakis is a former Commissioner and Member of the Board of the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC). Assimakis is currently a visiting professor (2020-2022) at Université Catholique de Louvain, a visiting fellow of the Centre for Law and Governance in Europe at University College London (UCL) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC) at the College of Europe. He is a prolific writer on legal matters and often gives speeches and seminars on EU competition law, arbitration and Greek law, and is a non-governmental advisor to the International Competition Network (ICN).
Distinctions
Nominee, 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, Procedure
Nominee, 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, Unilateral Conduct
Nominee, 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, Unilateral Conduct
Nominee, 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards : Academic, Unilateral Conduct
Nominee, 2018 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, Unilateral Conduct
Nominee, 2017 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, Cross-Border Issues
Nominee, 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, Procedure
Nominee, 2015 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, Mergers
Winner, 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, Private Enforcement
Nominee, 2013 Antitrust Writing Awards : Business, General Antitrust
Auteurs associés
2700 | Conférences

Vidéos
Articles
19519 Bulletin
571
On 9 June 2021, the European Commission (EC) published a Preliminary Report setting out the initial findings of its sector inquiry into the consumer Internet of Things (“IoT”). The consumer IoT sector encompasses services, devices and technologies that support the interaction of consumers with (...)
670
On 25 March 2021, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") dismissed all the appeals against the European Commission’s decision to fine Lundbeck and several other companies for entering into anti-competitive patent settlement agreements. The judgments largely repeat the position taken by the ECJ (...)
307
On 10 March 2020 the Court of Appeal upheld the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s (CAT) quashing of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) decision that Pfizer and Flynn Pharma (Flynn) had abused their dominant positions in the market by pricing their epilepsy drug unfairly. Among other (...)
600
This article has been nominated for the 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. EU Court confirms the need for transparency and full disclosure of economic analyses in EU merger cases (UPS/TNT)* On 16 January 2019, the Court of Justice of (...)
564
I. Introduction In the last couple of years, there has been a trend for antitrust watchdogs around the world to investigate excessive pricing, especially in the pharmaceutical sector. Last year, the European Commission opened its first investigation into excessive pricing in the pharmaceutical (...)
815
This article has been nominated for the 2018 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 6 September 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU" or "Court") essentially held in Intel that the European Commission ("Commission") cannot (...)
281
1. Background In its decision dated 23/6/2015 the Cypriot Commission for the Protection of Competition (the “CPC”) held that the operator of the Larnaca and Paphos international Airports in Cyprus, Hermes Airports Ltd, (hereafter referred as “Hermes”) violated Section 6(1)(a) of the Cyprus Law on (...)
839
On 5 March 2015, the European Court of Justice (CoJ) handed down its judgment in Versalis , concerning the increasing of fines for antitrust infringements where a company is found to be a repeat offender. The judgment raises important questions about the respect for the rights of defence in EU (...)
271
Class Actions : Now in Belgium*Class actions are a hot topic in Europe, and elsewhere. Various European countries have introduced, or are in the process of introducing, class action mechanisms. At the European Union level a similar development is noticeable, with proposals both in the field of (...)
270
This article has been nominated for the 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. Summary On 11 June 2013, the European Commission (“Commission”) adopted a proposal for a directive on how citizens and companies can bring damages claims under EU (...)
523
White Paper on damages actions for breach of EC antitrust rules. What Does It Mean For Business ? The White Paper brushes aside fears expressed in the business world and among practitioners about the import into Europe of a US-style mixture of aggressive class actions and treble damages and (...)
3176
On August 2005, a new Act was passed amending the Greek Competition Act n° 703 of 1977, which itself has been amended in the past on numerous occasions. The main objective of Law 3373/2005 was to reshuffle Greek competition law and essentially to respond to the new context of competition law (...)
10632
On 31 May 2005 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its judgment in Case C-53/03, Syfait and others v. GlaxoSmithKline AEVE and GlaxoSmithKline plc (“Syfait”), which raises the question of whether a dominant pharmaceutical undertaking is under a duty to supply unlimited quantities of (...)
35948 Revue
62
Cette rubrique Livres recense et commente les ouvrages et autres publications en droit de la concurrence, droit & économie de la concurrence et en droit de la régulation. Une telle recension ne peut par nature être exhaustive et se limite donc à présenter quelques publications récentes dans ces (...)
2448
Alors que la Commission européenne prépare sa proposition sur le ’Nouvel outil en matière de concurrence’, nous mettons en relief les implications juridiques, institutionnelles et politiques d’un tel outil. Nous examinons les questions relatives à la base juridique, aux faits déclencheurs (...)
922
La première table-ronde de la conférence qui s’est tenue le 13 mai 2014 à Paris sur le thème de la réparation des dommages concurrentiels était dédiée aux dommages concurrentiels dans les systèmes juridiques étrangers. Michele CARPAGNANO Professeur, Université de Trente Codirecteur, Osservatorio (...)
2090
L’existence et l’application de la soi-disant "exception d’efficience" de l’article 102 du TFUE ont fait l’objet de grandes discussions ces dernières années. Le document d’orientation de 2009 a donné un nouvel essor à la notion. Les articles réunis dans ce tendances donnent le point de vue de l’Union (...)
2927
La Commission européenne voit dans le « test de l’opérateur aussi efficace » un test général applicable aux stratégies tarifaires des entreprises dominantes. Les contributions à ce Tendances présentent ce test dans les différents domaines où l’on le rencontre. Le sujet a d’autant plus d’intérêt que la (...)
1630
1. Makis, you have been a Commissioner and Member of the Board of the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) for a year and a half, having left Brussels and an international law firm. Do you miss the life of a practitioner in Brussels ? 2. Can you describe your work at the HCC ? 3. Greece has (...)
6892
What does the Commission’s recent Communication on enforcement of Article 82 EC mean for companies ? Does it make enforcement more predictable ? Does the greater use of economic concepts reduce the risk that intense competition on the merits by the part of a dominant firm will be considered (...)
7248
Cette deuxième table-ronde du colloque "Quel avenir pour les restrictions verticales ?" (Paris, 23 mai 2008) est dédiée aux questions posées par les importations parallèles. Les récentes affaires en matère de produits pharmaceutiques ont souligné l’importance des enjeux et la difficulté de (...)
6159
The European Commission has published early April 2008 its White Paper on damages actions for antitrust violations. The White Paper makes a number of important specific proposals with the aim to facilitate civil antitrust claims for damages in Europe that will certainly create a lot of (...)
5570
La Commission européenne tend de plus en plus à faire référence aux objectifs de l’Agenda de Lisbonne, et plus particulièrement à la compétitivité des entreprises européennes dans ses discours sur la politique communautaire de concurrence. L’Agenda de Lisbonne est présenté comme l’objectif prioritaire de (...)
Livres

Pioneer, avant-garde, transformationalist - Eleanor M. Fox is regularly described in these terms by the manifold antitrust practitioners who have been influenced by her industry-shaping scholarly (...)

This two-volume Liber amicorum is a collection of tributes to Ian Forrester’s outstanding career and articles signed by prominent academics and practitioners around the world on the most current (...)

This two-volume Liber amicorum is a collection of tributes to Ian Forrester’s outstanding career and articles signed by prominent academics and practitioners around the world on the most current (...)

The purpose of this book is to compare and contrast EU competition case law with European Members States competition case law, and Members States competition case law with each other. To the best (...)