Candela Sotes is a Senior Associate in Bird & Bird’s Competition & EU law practice in Madrid. She has extensive knowledge on a wide range of competition law issues and experience in advising national and international companies. She has great problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt to individual clients’ needs. Her practice covers all aspects of EU and Spanish competition law, including antitrust investigations, merger control analysis, state aids, unfair commercial practices, damages actions, compliance and regulatory affairs. She has gained extensive expertise assisting clients in antitrust (ie cartel and abuse of dominance cases) and merger control proceedings before the Spanish Competition Authority (’CNMC’) and the European Commission. In particular, she has been involved in complex multi-jurisdictional merger control filings and she regularly advises clients on the implementation of antitrust compliance programmes. She has provided legal advice to leading Spanish and international companies across a broad range of industries, including automotive, telecom, retail & consumer, life sciences & healthcare. She has contributed to several publications on competition and wider EU law matters – including ’Getting the Deal Through’ and ’Tirant lo Blanch’ and collaborated with prestigious universities such as Carlos III University and IE University. Before joining Bird & Bird, she worked as an associate in the competition & EU law department of a major Spanish law firm. She is a native Spanish speaker and fluent in English and Italian.
55
On February 18, 2022, the Spanish Competition Authority (“CNMC”) decided to fine the National Postal Company, Correos, EUR 32.6 million after concluding that the application of certain discounts would have had a potential foreclosing effect on the retail market for the provision of traditional (...)
149
The Spanish Competition Authority (“CNMC”) has recently published a study about the online advertising sector in which it analyses the market competition conditions, with a stress on ‘big tech’ practices. The study mentions, among other things, some key factors to tackle the set of (...)
520
This month, the Spanish Competition Authority (“CNMC”) has opened formal proceedings against Amazon and Apple for their alleged participation in a conduct prohibited by Articles 1 of the Spanish Competition Act and 101 of the TFEU related to the sale of Apple products in Amazon’s marketplace. (...)
242
On 11 May 2021, the Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) fined 22 consulting firms and several of their executives a total of EUR 6.3 million for creating a cartel in violation of Article 1 of the Spanish Competition Act (LDC) and Article 101 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European (...)
236
On 29 April 2021, the Spanish Royal Decree-Law 7/2021 entered into force, modifying the Spanish Competition Act (“LDC”) due to the transposition of the Directive 2019/1 – known as the “ECN+ Directive” – which aims to achieve a more effective application of competition rules by the National (...)
331
The Spanish Competition authority (“CNMC”) has cleared Caixabank’s acquisition of state-owned financial entity Bankia in phase I, subject to conditions. This transaction gives rise to the merger between the third and the fourth largest financial entities in Spain, with 660 billion euros worth (...)
469
This article has been nominated for the 2022 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. 1. The revolution of digital platforms Digital platforms have burst onto the market in recent years. There is no doubt that their ability to offer a large (...)
423
The Spanish Competition authority (“CNMC”) has agreed to put an end to the infringement proceedings brought against Google and El Tenedor in November 2018 for an alleged conduct related to Google’s search engine and Google Maps’ online restaurant reservation system prohibited by Articles 1 and (...)
77
The Spanish Competition authority (CNMC) has imposed a total fine of €3.5 million on six companies for their participation in up to three different cartels involving the exchange of sensitive commercial information, the allocation of customers and the fixing of prices in relation to different (...)
140
The sale and use of audio-visual football rights in Spain has always been in the spotlight due to frequent controversies between the Spanish Football Federation (“RFEF”), the national professional football league (“LaLiga”) and the football clubs. At a national level, LaLiga organises the (...)
90
In Spain, as in many other countries, the gas sector is crucial given its strategic importance and its necessary use for many industrial and consumer applications. It is also one of the most complex sectors, with several players spread over different upstream and downstream markets such as (...)
181
The rapid development that the e-commerce sector has undergone in the last decade has meant its definitive implementation as one of the most relevant routes to market. This development has come along with important judgments of the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") on this matter. Cases such (...)
148
The application of the transitional regime of the Damages Directive (No. 2014/104), of 26 November 2014, has created legal uncertainty regarding the statute of limitations of damages claims. On 12 June 2020, the Regional Court of León referred questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) (...)
108
Since the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") judgment in 2014 in case Commission v. Spain (C-576/13), which declared the Spanish regime for stevedores incompatible with the freedom of establishment, there has been a progressive modification of the national regulation in order to liberalise the (...)
183
The Spanish Competition authority (the "CNMC") has made available a special mailbox for complaints and queries related to the application of competition rules in the context of the health crisis created by COVID-19. During these exceptional circumstances, this mailbox is intended to resolve (...)
112
The ongoing conflict between ride-hailing services (known in Spain as "VTCs"), such as Uber, and the taxi sector has led to a new ruling from the Spanish Supreme Court that confirms the view of the Spanish Competition Authority (the "CNMC") that the restrictions imposed on the VTCs are (...)
35
In February 2019, the Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) opened formal proceedings against 25 consulting companies and 8 of their executives for allegedly manipulating and allocating public tenders in the consulting services market between 2009 and 2018. This case was initiated in the wake (...)
111
At the end of last year, a major Spanish insurance group -Santa Lucía- notified to the Spanish Competition authority (the "CNMC") a proposed merger whereby it would acquire the funeral businesses of Funespaña (a subsidiary of Mapfre, a direct competitor of Santa Lucía). This acquisition will (...)
83
On 3 February 2020, the Spanish Competition Authority (the "CNMC") launched a public consultation with the aim of developing a comprehensive guide on antitrust compliance programs. The consultation essentially focuses on what constitutes an effective compliance program. Regulators, (...)
139
On 5 December 2019, the Provincial Court of Valencia upheld the appeal lodged by MAN Truck & Bus Iberia S.A. (a Spanish subsidiary of the worldwide truck producer MAN) against the Judgment of a lower court admitting the possibility to claim for damages from the Spanish subsidiary where the (...)
147
On 12 November 2019, the Spanish Competition Authority ("CNMC") imposed a total fine of EUR 77.2 million on Mediaset and Atresmedia, the largest media companies in Spain, for including clauses in their contracts with advertisers and media agencies that foreclosed the access of competitors to (...)
72
In September, the Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) has launched two different antitrust investigations, one concerning chemical products and the other concerning the network of automatic cashiers (ATMs). From 17 to 19 September 2019, the CNMC carried out dawn raids at the premises of (...)
94
On 6 February 2019, the Spanish Competition Authority ("CNMC") opened formal proceedings against 25 consultancy companies — including, inter alia, Deloitte, PwC, and Indra — and eight individuals. This investigation was initiated in January 2017 by the Regional Competition Authority in the (...)
71
On 11 July 2019, the Spanish Competition Authority ("CNMC") fined eight dairy companies and two industry associations with a total of €80,657,617 for infringing Article 1 of the Spanish Competition Act ("LDC") and Article 101 of the TFEU. The alleged anticompetitive practices took place in (...)
51
Historically, stowage activities in Spain had been reserved for dockers affiliated to public companies known as "SAGEPs" so that stowage companies had to be part the of the SAGEPs’ shareholding structure. However, on 11 December 2014, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") declared this regime (...)
55
On 30 May 2019, the Spanish Competition Authority ("CNMC") imposed a total fine of 33.88 million EUR on the National Association of Text Books and Teaching Materials Publishers ("ANELE") and 34 publishing houses for the application of a mechanism to restrict trade policies and commercial (...)
156
On 10 April 2019, the Spanish Competition Authority ("CNMC") fined three of the world’s largest tobacco companies - Philip Morris, Altadis and JT International – and their common distributor, Logista – with 57.71 million EUR for participating in an exchange of commercially sensitive (...)
77
On 14 March 2019, the Spanish Competition Authority ("CNMC") fined Siemens, Alstom and 13 other companies with a total of 118 million euros for colluding in public tenders convened by the Spanish Administrator of Railways of Infrastructures (“ADIF”). The CNMC has identified three separate (...)
88
Under its advocacy role, the Spanish Competition Authority (the "CNMC") published on 17 January 2019 a report on recent regional and local regulations imposed on private-hire driver licences (known as "VTCs") that ride hailing apps - such as Uber - for operating in Spain. As in other (...)
