Ernesto Apa

Ernesto Apa is a digital, media and telecommunications lawyer and adjunct professor of digital media and regulation at the Bocconi University. He is ranked by Legal500 as leading individual in TMT and by Chambers Europe in Band 1. Ernesto Apa joined Portolano Cavallo in 2003 and became a partner in 2010. He advises domestic and international clients on regulatory and contractual aspects within the digital, media and telecommunication sector, such as exploitation of digital content, television and audiovisual services, internet, advertising and unfair commercial practices, copyright, ISP liability, electronic communications, etc. Lastly, he has extensive experience on the regulatory aspects of M&A transactions in the Digital, Media & Technology sector, having worked as regulatory counsel on many such deals over the years. Ernesto is the author of a treatise on advertising, of the entry “Television” for legal encyclopedia “Diritto OnLine” edited by Treccani (the Italian equivalent of the Encyclopædia Britannica), as well as many articles on media and constitutional law on the most prestigious Italian law reviews (Giurisprudenza Costituzionale, Quaderni Costituzionali, Foro Italiano, etc.). With Oreste Pollicino, he edited the first “Codice della comunicazione digitale” (Code of digital communications – Internet, TV, Advertising, Privacy, now in its second edition ; Egea, 2015), and authored (in English) “Modeling the liability of internet service providers. Google vs. Vivi down. A constitutional perspective” (Egea, 2013). He is also the co-author of “La regolamentazione dei contenuti digitali” (The regulation of digital content, Aracne, 1998-2013), a volume celebrating the first fifteen years of the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM), which includes chapters authored by the incumbent President and all past Presidents of the Authority. He also co-authored the book “Diritti e libertà in Internet” (Rights and Liberties on the Internet, Mondadori Education, 2017). Ernesto is Adjunct Professor of Digital Media and Regulation at the LL.M. in Law of Internet Technology of the Bocconi University, has been Adjunct Professor of International Law at the University of Calabria and teaches in the Master in Information Technology Law of the La Sapienza University in Rome. Furthermore, he is vice-Editor-in-Chief of MediaLaws – Rivista di diritto dei media. He is a member of the International Bar Association (IBA) and of the think tank ASTRID (Fondazione per l’Analisi, gli Studi e le Ricerche sulla Riforma delle Istituzioni Democratiche) and I-Com. He is also a member of the Film Review Commission of the Ministry of Culture. In 2009 Ernesto obtained a Ph.D. in Public Business Law from the La Sapienza University in Rome ; he graduated summa cum laude from the law school of the same university in 2002.