On 29 January 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) delivered its judgment (the “Judgment”) in Case C-286/24 (Meliá Hotels International), which ruled on three preliminary questions referred by the Supreme Court of Portugal concerning the interpretation of Directive 2014/104/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union (the “Directive”).

The request for a preliminary ruling was made in the context of proceedings that arose from European Commission (the “Commission”) Decision C(2020) 893 final, adopted in Case AT.40528-Meliá (Holiday Pricing) (the “Decision”).

You can read the full Legal Briefing here.

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Pérez-Llorca today announced the promotion of twelve professionals to partner in recognition of their track record, commitment, technical excellence and contribution to the growth of the firm. This move bolsters the firm’s leadership and commitment to developing talent in its various offices. Specifically, the new partners are based in the Madrid, Mexico City and Bogotá offices and will strengthen different strategic practice areas for the firm.

The Pérez-Llorca professionals who will become partners as of 1 January 2026 are:

• Melchor Álvarez de Mon (Corporate, London)
• Antonio De Lisi (Corporate, Mexico City)
• Iciar de Lorenzo (Corporate, Madrid)
• Francisco Gómez (Corporate, Madrid)
• Eugenio Marín (Finance, Madrid)
• Ángel Martín (Corporate, Madrid)
• Patricio Martínez (Competition, Mexico City)
• Enrique Muñoz (Regulatory, Mexico City)
• Antonio Ruiz (Tax, Madrid)
• Paola Valderrama (Corporate, Bogotá)
• Belén Wert (Administrative, Madrid)
• Yi Zhou (Tax, Madrid)

In addition, the firm has promoted Daragh Brehony (Litigation and Arbitration, Madrid), Eva del Amo (Real Estate, Madrid), Antonio García (Real Estate, Madrid), Nuria García (Real Estate, Madrid) and María Camila Parra (Real Estate, Bogotá) to counsels.

These appointments reflect Pérez-Llorca’s objective to drive internal growth, recognise in-house talent and strengthen its leadership structure in the face of current and future challenges in the legal market.

“We thank these professionals for their commitment, effort and dedication, and we are confident that, with the drive of this new generation of partners, our ability to serve our clients and our global reach will be further strengthened,” said Pedro Pérez-Llorca, Senior Partner of Pérez-Llorca.

London Office

After seven years at the helm of the London office, the first opened by Pérez-Llorca in foreign territory, Álvaro Ramírez de Haro will hand over the reins to José Luis Romeu, a partner who has been working there since the beginning of 2024.

Ramírez de Haro will return to Madrid, where he will continue to work closely with the London office through his work with major international funds and firms.

Likewise, Ander Valverde, a partner based in London since 2022, who has combined his responsibility for the Finance team in Spain with the development of the firm’s debt practice in London, will return to Spain in April 2026, where he will continue to coordinate the Finance practice in Madrid and remain linked to the London office through the firm’s clients in this key financial centre for this practice.

Pérez-Llorca’s London office has a team of more than 10 people which, alongside José Luis Romeu, includes partners Isabel Villa (Restructuring) and the recently appointed Melchor Álvarez de Mon (Corporate), who joins the team in the British capital to further bolster this location.

José Luis Romeu joined Pérez-Llorca in 2017 as a lawyer in the Corporate practice and made partner in January 2024. Specialising in commercial law, his career has a strong international flavour as, in addition to an LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law from Georgetown University, he worked in the firm’s London office in 2019 and 2020 and is also a Solicitor of England and Wales.

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The event took place at the firm’s Barcelona offices and was attended by Juan Jiménez-Laiglesia, partner at Pérez-Llorca; Rosa Ferrer, lecturer in the Department of Economics and Business at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and director of the Master’s Degree in Competition, Regulation and Markets at the Barcelona School of Economics; Virginia Rodríguez, deputy director of Electronic Communications Regulation at the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC); Berta Pellicer, judge of Barcelona Commercial Court No. 3; and Susanna Grau, director general of the Catalan Competition Authority (ACCO).

Juan Jiménez-Laiglesia opened the seminar by highlighting the significance of the current situation in the field of both merger control and damage claims. He underlined the importance of the revision of the European Commission’s Guidelines on the assessment of horizontal mergers, as well as those on non-horizontal mergers, and the impact they will have on merger control practice in the coming years. In his speech, he pointed out that “public and private enforcement of competition law are bound to converge, because both pursue the same goal: to ensure more transparent, efficient and fairer markets.”

Rosa Ferrer went on to analyse the interactions between law and economics in merger control, stressing the need for an approach using quantitative tools to measure the impact of mergers on consumer welfare. She emphasised that “mergers have to be assessed in terms of how they affect prices, quantity produced, quality and innovation”, adding that “measuring the latter two factors is challenging because they are particularly complex to quantify and predict. That’s why there is currently a debate in Europe on competition and industrial policy.” In this regard, she argued for the importance of improving the availability and quality of data in order to design policies that promote innovation and effective competition.

Next, Virginia Rodríguez focused her speech on the current situation of the telecommunications sector from a regulatory perspective. She explained that the CNMC exercises, among others, ex ante regulatory functions over operators with significant market power, imposing obligations of access, transparency and non-discrimination with the aim of preventing anti-competitive behaviour. Rodríguez stressed that Spain has one of the highest levels of high-capacity network coverage in Europe, although she warned that the European market is very disparate and progress is needed to achieve the EU’s digital transformation objectives. She also pointed out that the reforms under preparation at European level aim to “advance the construction of the internal market, harmonise rules, simplify procedures and strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty,” and stressed “the need to adapt regulation in the face of technological convergence, ensuring balanced competition in a rapidly changing environment.” The deputy director referred to other regulatory measures that are essential for the rollout and whose compliance is monitored by the CNMC, such as the Gigabit Infrastructure Act, which has been applicable since November this year.

Pellicer also analysed the evolution of case law on damages actions for infringements of competition law, paying special attention to the recent decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Spanish Supreme Court. She stressed that “the Spanish Supreme Court has consolidated case law in favour of full compensation, reinforcing the binding effect of the competition authority’s final decisions not only to prove the infringement, but also to presume and estimate the damage.” The judge explained that the finality of the decisions and the calculation of the limitation period are currently two of the most decisive aspects in these types of proceedings. Furthermore, she stressed the importance of maintaining a balance between legal certainty and the effective right to relief.

Lastly, Susanna Grau addressed the connection between public and private enforcement of competition law and defended the claim for damages as an essential tool to reinforce the culture of compliance and the effectiveness of the system. The ACCO’s director general stressed that “the damages market has expanded beyond large corporations, also incorporating claims from SMEs, individuals and even the public sector,” and highlighted the initiatives promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya to “institutionalise a policy of zero tolerance towards infringements and promote the systematic recovery of damages suffered by public administrations.”

To conclude the session, the speakers discussed issues such as the proliferation of preventive complaints in tenders and the calculation of the limitation period in different scenarios. In closing, Juan Jiménez-Laiglesia stressed that “cooperation between authorities, courts, economists and lawyers is essential to face the new challenges of competition law in Europe” and added that the Pérez-Llorca/ICADE Chair will continue to be a meeting point to promote this dialogue and anticipate the transformations that will mark the future of this discipline.

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Article 7bis (2)(b) Act 19/2003, of 4 July, on the legal regime governing capital movements and economic transactions with foreign countries and on certain measures to prevent money laundering (the “Spanish FDI Act”) refers to AI in the context of “critical and dual-use technologies, key technologies for industrial leadership and training, and technologies developed under programs and projects of particular interest to Spain”.

You can read the full article here.

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This Legal Journal is mainly written in Spanish. For further information, please contact: comunicacion@perezllorca.com

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Juan Jiménez-Laiglesia, Competition partner at Pérez-Llorca, opened the session by thanking the experts for their participation and underlined the importance of this type of event to stimulate debate and reflection on the present and future of competition law in Spain. The Pérez-Llorca partner stressed the importance of effective regulation adapted to economic and technological changes, thus ensuring the protection of competition in an increasingly dynamic and globalised environment.

Marcos Araújo, president of the AEDC, then moderated a session in which the presidents spoke in chronological order, from Amadeo Petitbó to the current President Cani Fernández.

The meeting was attended by the Spanish competition authority’s former presidents Amadeo Petitbò Juan, Gonzalo Solana, Luis Berenguer Fuster, Joaquín García Bernaldo de Quirós and José María Marín Quemada, as well as Cani Fernández Vicién, current President of  the Spanish National Commission on Markets and Competition (using the Spanish acronym, the “CNMC”).

During the session, Amadeo Petitbò Juan highlighted the usefulness of economic analysis in the application of competition law, examining a case in which price fixing by a company with a dominant position was similar to that corresponding to a competitive situation. This led to it being sued for imposing barriers to entry on its competitors with higher production costs. Had it set higher prices, even monopoly prices, it would have been sued for abuse of a dominant position. In his view, if a company with a dominant position acts as if it were in competition, it should not be penalised. This case shows the relevance of combining legal and economic analysis.

Gonzalo Solana spoke about the challenges of competition law in the face of government intervention in a rapidly changing geopolitical context. He recalled his time as head of the authority between 2000 and 2005, highlighting the importance of the Servicio de Defensa de la Competencia (Competition Defence Service) in the preparation of reports and the need for proper justification of decisions. He highlighted advances such as cooperation with the autonomous communities, the creation of the Escuela Iberoamericana de la Competencia (Ibero-American Competition School) and participation in the International Competition Network. In his speech, he also called for the authority to carry out more educational work to facilitate compliance and highlighted the usefulness of compliance programmes as a preventive tool.

Luis Berenguer Fuster analysed mergers in the audiovisual sector in Spain, addressing questions about competition regulation in this area. In addition, he referred to Article 10.4 of the Competition Act, which sets out the supervision of sectoral regulation, suggesting that its wording is too broad and may need to be revised.

Joaquín García Bernaldo de Quirós focused on the increasing public intervention in the economy, mentioning the role of public entities in sectors where there is no clear market failure. He expressed concern about the CNMC’s independence from government interference and warned about the risks of over-regulation, comparing it to the US model. He then went on to explain the relevance of the authority’s action in terms of publication of reports in certain areas (public tenders, land market) essential for the development of effective competition.

José María Marín Quemada stressed the importance of institutions as pillars of the state. He also discussed settlement, or the conventional termination of proceedings, an alternative to the ordinary procedure in which companies acknowledge their participation in a cartel infringement and collaborate with the authority to speed up the resolution of the sanctioning proceedings. As regards sanctions against people in management positions, he considered that they do not have an adequate deterrent effect.

Finally, Cani Fernández Vicién pointed out that in the current legislature there is no regulatory vehicle for settlement or for sanctions against people in management positions. She also highlighted the resurgence of exploitative abuse of dominant positions in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and digital, citing several cases recently analysed by the CNMC. She also underlined the key role of European regulators in enforcing the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), ensuring fair competition in the digital environment. Lastly, she reiterated that the CNMC has no role as a consumer authority, mentioning the fake review case, which was closed and referred to the Directorate-General for Consumer Affairs.

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In May this year, the European Commission (the “Commission”) published a Policy Brief setting out its position on the analysis of agreements between companies that restrict competition in labour markets, in the light of European competition law.

Consult the full content of the Legal Briefing here.

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This Legal Briefing will provide an overview of the new developments in civil and commercial matters, which will be implemented, if the Draft is approved, through the amendment of several provisions contained in the current text of Law 1/2000, of 7 January, on Civil Procedure (“LEC”).

You can read the full briefing here.

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