
Luis Blanquez
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Phone: +1-858-964-4589
Fax: 858-964-2301
4275 Executive Square #200
La Jolla, California 92037
Luis Blanquez is an antitrust and compliance attorney with 15 years of experience at the European Commission and major international law firms in the European Union. Luis joined Bona Law PC in 2016 in San Diego, and qualified as a US attorney in the state of California in 2018.
His experience includes work for French legal chambers and judges as part of the “Leonardo da Vinci” European traineeship program. Furthermore, he worked as a trainee at the Directorate General of Information Society of the European Commission in Brussels, before moving to the former Merger Task Force (“MTF”) at the Directorate General of Competition, as a case handler. There he gained extensive experience on merger cases such as the Oracle/Peoplesoft, Banco Santander/Abbey and EDP/GDP/ENI transactions, among others.
Luis has also worked during the past 10 years in several international law firms such as Simmons & Simmons LLP, CMS, and Herbert Smith Freehills LLP in Madrid, Brussels and London, advising clients in merger control, cartel and other antitrust investigations, as well as antitrust and non-antitrust compliance issues. Luis is a Spanish native speaker and is fluent in English and proficient in French.
J.D., Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) and Université de Nantes (France)
Erasmus Exchange Program
LLM, European Business Law, Universiteit van Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
LLM, European Competition Law, Kings College London (UK)
With merit
Spain (European Union)
- Represent client in a dozen antitrust lawsuits against Orange County municipalities and private company for monopolizing the ambulance industry.
- Defend Japanese capacitor manufacturer against class action antitrust claims in federal Multi-District Litigation. (In re Capacitors Antitrust Litigation).
- Prior to joining the firm, Luis was also involved with other international law firms in antitrust cases in the European Union, advising among others:
- Telefónica on its £17.7bn takeover offer for O2 (together with the London office).
- HSBC on the public bid by EON for Endesa (together with the London office).
- GALP before the European Commission and the former Court of First Instance (now General Court), concerning its participation in the Spanish Bitumen Cartel (together with the Brussels and Lisbon offices).
- Hombergh and De Pundert on EU merger control rules regarding their acquisition of joint control over RSDB. Preparation of Form RS to DG COMP pursuant to Article 4(5) of Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (while at the Brussels office).
- Shell Petroleum N.V. on the signing of a Sale and Purchase Agreement and Trademark License Agreement relating to the divestment of Shell’s Oil Products businesses in Spain.
- Adveo (Former Unipapel) in the envelopes cartel case, and Lactalis in the milk cartel case, both before the Spanish Competition Authority.
Concurrences: Antitrust Publications
- The Spanish Supreme Court halves an antitrust fine in the bakery sector to 150.000 Euros.
- The Spanish National Court issues a third judgment in the asphalt roads cartel case addressing the issue of the burden of proof in bid rigging cases (Asphalt roads cartel).
- The Spanish National Court applies the ECJ "dual pricing" ruling to quash a decision by the Spanish Competition Commission concerning prices imposed to wholesalers by pharmaceutical company (Pfizer).
- The Spanish Competition Authority fines the holder of football TV rights for abusing its dominant position in the resale of these rights and in the pay TV market (Mediapro).
Gaceta Jurídica de la Competencia y la Unión Europea
Others
- La investigación de la Comisión Europea sobre el sector farmacéutico ¿Empresas Innovadoras vs. Fabricantes de Genéricos?
- Glaxo Wellcome e Irish Beef: ¿Qué acuerdos tienen realmente por “objeto” restringir la competencia en Derecho Comunitario?
- La reparación de daños y perjuicios por incumplimiento de las normas comunitarias de defensa de la competencia: en busca de la Directiva perfecta, pero ¿existe realmente?