The European Commission published the studies prepared with Lear’s support for the fitness check of State Aid rules

Lear, together with DIW Berlin and Sheppard Mullin, has been appointed to support the European Commission’s “fitness check” on the “Guidelines on State aid to promote risk finance investments” and the “Guidelines on State aid to airports and airlines”. The Guidelines were part of the State Aid Modernisation, a package of rules meant to simplify the procedure State Members must follow to implement State aid. The fitness check is an evaluation aimed at deciding whether to further prolong or update the provisional rules of the Modernisation package. Read more

LEAR COMPETITION FESTIVAL ROME 9-11 JUNE 2021 – SAVE THE DATE

Due to the current health emergency and the governmental provisions related to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Lear Competition Festival will not take place in June 2020, as originally planned and proposed.

In agreement with our partners, the Lear Competition Festival is postponed to 9-11 June 2021.
We are working with the same enthusiasm to organize a Festival with even more initiatives, always striving for the highest qualitative standards.

In the forthcoming months, we will keep you updated on any news related to the LCF and, for any information, you can visit our website www.learcompetitionfestival.com.

CAPACITY BUILDING TO THE OFFICIALS OF THE ALBANIAN COMPETITION AUTHORITY

As part of the Technical Assistance project financed by the EBRD, Lear’s team is delivering online trainings to the officials of the Albanian Competition Authority to strengthen their skills and competencies on economic aspects of competition policy. In particular, the topics of the first set of trainings to be delivered in May 2020 are on:
Read more

COVID -19 OUR APPROACH

These have been peculiar days for us and for all, due to the Covid-19 emergency. It is our first objective to safeguard the well-being of Lear staff, our colleagues and clients and to do our part to curb the spread of the infection. Despite the difficulties, we are continuing to do our best to provide our partners and clients with the best service possible, in the hope that everything will be soon back to normal.

We look forward to when we will be able to meet in person again.

From all the Lear team!

Our column on Vox “Tech-over: Mergers and merger policy in digital markets”

Lear together with Emilio Calvano looks at the M&A activity carried out by Amazon, Facebook, and Google between 2008 and 2018 (Argentesi et al., 2019b). Over this period, based on publicly available information, Google acquired 168 companies, Facebook 71 companies, and Amazon 60 companies. The question is whether the target companies would have grown to be viable competitors to the acquiring tech giants.
To read more on this article here

ALESSIA MARRAZZO AND SALVATORE NAVA PROMOTED TO PARTNER

Lear is pleased to announce that Alessia Marrazzo and Salvatore Nava have been promoted to partners.

Alessia Marrazzo has joined Lear in March 2014. She has amassed considerable experience in Lear’s litigation practice, routinely supporting clients in follow-on damages actions; she has been involved in several cases before the Italian Competition Authority; and she has worked on ex-post evaluation analyses of competition policy decisions on behalf of the European Commission and national competition authorities. Most notably, Alessia has recently advised a leading operator in the Italian energy sector in a series of damages claims brought by its clients and competitors; and assisted the Mexican government in two arbitration cases. Alessia holds a Master in Competition and Regulation from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

Salvatore Nava has joined Lear in September 2014, after gaining extensive experience in a competition economics consultancy based in London. During this time, Salvatore has worked across all of Lear’s practices, including public and private enforcement of competition law and technical assistance. Most recently, Salvatore has led the team responsible for the ex post evaluation of digital mergers that Lear carried out on behalf of the CMA; and the one tasked with the assessment of State Aid rules set out by the European Commission to help SMEs gain access to finance. Salvatore holds advanced degrees in Economics and Industrial Economics from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the University of East Anglia respectively.

Since being established in 1999 by Paolo Buccirossi, Lear has grown to become a respected member of the global antitrust community. With these appointments, Lear commits to investing in its internal resources to continue to feed this growth.

Deutsche Bahn and OBB have their appeal upheld by the Administrative Tribunal of Piemonte

The Administrative Tribunal of Piemonte has upheld the appeal lodged by Deutsche Bahn Italia (Deutsche Bahn) S.r.l. and Öbb-Personenverkehr Aktiengesellschaft (OBB) against the decision of the Italian Transport Regulation Authority (Autorità di Regolazione dei Trasporti – ART) to raise wholesale fees for international train services. Read more

#LEARCOMPETIONFESTIVAL 2020 – Rome 10-12 JUNE – REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

The Lear Competition Festival (LCF) is a unique event where competition law and economics, and regulatory issues will be discussed at all levels.
During the three-day Festival, participants will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge on specific antitrust issues, to acquire new tools for legal and economic analysis of firms’ practices, and to network with the main players in the competition field.

More info on www.learcompetitionfestival.com
Join us and  benefit from our super early bird offer!

STUDY VISIT OF MONGOLIAN COMPETITION AUTHORITY

Today, Lear has gladly hosted the Authority on Fair Competition and Consumer Protection of Mongolia at its office in Rome. Read more

LEAR COMPETITION FESTIVAL ROME 10-12 JUNE 2020 – SAVE THE DATE

In 2020 Lear proposes a new conference format, where competition law and economics issues will be discussed at all levels.
The Lear Competition Festival is a unique event, that gives participants the opportunity to deepen their knowledge on specific antitrust issues, acquire new tools for the legal and economic analysis of firms’ practices, and network with key actors in the field of competition law competition (e.g. competition authorities, firms, IFIs, economists and lawyers).

The LCF features an innovative tailor-made platform – Talent4Comp – helping young talents and organizations in the antitrust field meet each other for employment opportunities.

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?

ADVANCED DISCUSSION OF COMPETITION LAW AND ECONOMICS TOPICS
Promoting and developing the antitrust knowledge through round tables on cutting-edge topics with outstanding speakers from regulatory and competition authorities, universities, legal and economic consultancies, firms and international institutions.

PARALLEL SESSIONS
Know-how sessions on competition law and economics and discussions on leading antitrust cases.

LCF SHORT ESSAY AWARD
Award of the four Best Short Essays on highly debated topics of competition law and economics.

EXHIBITION AREA
Opportunity to promote your organization through exhibition stands or personalized advertising in an international environment.

NETWORKING AND SOCIAL EVENTS
Unique occasion to interact with international experts and keynote speakers to make new contacts and establish professional relations.

Stay tuned and sign up here to find out all the latest news on #LCF2020!