Antitrust law has acquired a sovranational dimension and scope. From the perspective of the Italian and Eu legislator, antitrust rules are aimed at preserving conditions of competition into the market among operators to the benefit of consumers.
In the European Union, the supervising and fining authority is the European Commission, while in the Italian territory, this power is granted to the Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato, the so called Antitrust Authority.
When businesses restrict competition by agreeing to coordinate their market behavior instead of competing openly, this is harmful to consumers as well as other competitors. The task of the Antitrust Authority is to prevent this from happening and to inflict fines on whoever breaks the law. The Antitrust Authority also steps in whenever businesses abuse their market power by imposing unreasonable prices on consumers, denying market access to potential competitors or maneuvering to cut competitors out of their markets..
Whenever two companies merge or one company purchases another, the Antitrust Authority determines whether the new enterprise embodies too much market power. When threats to competition are identified, it may prohibit the merger or impose measures for mitigating their negative impact on competition.
(from the Italian Antitrus Authoritys’ website, www.agcm.it)
Legal services offered in Antitrust Law
Lex IBC advises national and international clients on issues related to antitrust law and, namely, Lex IBC may carry on the following activities:
- Evaluation of the company extraordinary operations from an antitrust viewpoint, notification of the prospected merger to the Antitrust authority and management of the related process.
- Assessment of the antitrust issues arising in drafting and negotiating some commercial contracts, in particular distribution agreements and supply chain agreements, at national or international level.
Moreover, Lex IBC organizes courses in antitrust law, also for companies interested in developing antitrust compliance programs, in line with the guidelines of the Italian Antitrust authority.
Why choosing Lex IBC
Legal services in this specialised field of law, are mostly offered by Italian big law firms in Milan or Rome.
However, not all activities in the antitrust field justify the hiring of a big law firm, nor all the companies are multinationals with big budgets to invest in such legal activities.
Lex IBC, thanks to the experience of Mariangela Balestra as attorney, acquired in one of the leading Italian law firm in this field, may provide tailor made assistance in line with the companies needs.