Competition & Regulatory
D’ORNANO PARTNERS, with the expertise of dr. Bálint Bassola, Of Counsel, advises and assists major international groups in matters related to local and European Union (EU) competition law as well as general and sector-specific regulations.
Our legal advice is based on 20+ years of experience in the area of competition law.
In addition to providing legal advice, tailor-made audits and compliance programs, the team represents its clients before the Competition Authority, the European Commission and other authorities in charge of various regulated markets.
We have up-to-date knowledge of the latest regulatory developments of various sectors, including financial services, insurance, telecommunications, energy, food products, IT, pharmaceuticals and industrial manufacturing.
We offer our clients a unique, one-stop shop service on a regional scale, providing services in the CEE and SEE, directly or through a strong network of partner law firms. Our extensive knowledge of the region allows us to build closer ties with key local players and provide high quality advice to our clients in these countries.
The main areas of our Competition & Regulatory expertise are:
We assist companies in relation to practices, behaviours and situations that may give rise to issues relating to compliance with competition law. We advise and guide clients in issues relating to abuse dominance and prohibition of anti-competitive practices, such as alleged involvement in cartels.
We do not only represent our clients during antitrust proceedings before the Competition Authority, but we also provide tailor-made compliance programs, dawn raid trainings and so called ‘mock dawn raids’, simulating on-site inspections and drafting comprehensive reports on the risks investigated.
We advise our clients on complex merger control aspects of transactions at an early stage of the deal structuring, ensuring the timely preparation of merger notifications towards the competition authorities. We also represent our clients in regional cross-border mergers involving notifications before several national competition authorities.
We are often asked to assess the legality of commercial practices used by our clients or those by its competitors.
We have in-depth knowledge of consumer protection regulations of various industries, including the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical sectors. We also represent companies before the consumer protection authorities.
As some new national legislation may adversely affect the business of undertakings, it is important to present potential ways to challenge such legislation at the EU level. We advise clients in relation to the conformity of local legislation with EU law in high level cases before the European Commission.
In the recent past the EU has adopted several new pieces of legislations in the digital sector with massive implications for competition law. We advise our clients about the requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and those of the Digital Services Act (DSA). We were among the very first in the EU to file a complaint against one of the digital gatekeepers under the DMA towards the European Commission and are therefore able to provide companies with valuable legal advice regarding their compliance with these new and yet virtually untested rules.
The infringement of competition law by undertakings may cause harm, for example in the form of damages. We advise our clients in high profile cartel damages proceedings before civil courts.