Veronica Pinotti is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery Studio Legale Associato, mainly based in its Milan and Brussels office. She leads the Italian EU Competition and Regulatory practice, where she focuses on advising Italian and international clients on a wide range of legal issues relating to competition, including merger control, distribution, cartels and abuse of dominance before the Italian Competition Authority and the European Commission. She also advises on price fixing, unfair competition practices and misleading advertising as well as acquisitions and divestures by international groups.
Veronica assists clients active in many industry sectors including food and beverages, financial services, telecoms, metal and life sciences industries.
Before joining McDermott Will & Emery, Veronica was head of the Italian Competition and EU law group of a leading international law firm and worked for many years as a senior solicitor and avocat in London and Brussels. Prior to moving into private practice, Veronica trained in the Directorate-General in charge for competition and merger control at the European Commission.
Veronica regularly writes articles and speaks at conferences on competition law. She contributes to the Italian chapter of Practical Law Company's Cross-border Practice Manual "International Sales and Marketing". She also lectures at the “Master in Antitrust e Regolazione dei Mercati – Economia della Concorrenza e Regolazione delle Public Utilities” at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
Veronica is ranked as a leader in her field by Chambers Europe 2011 where she is recognised for her work building and developing the Firm's [Italian] antitrust practice. She is described by European Legal 500 2011 as "an experienced and professional lawyer" and is recommended by Global Competition Review’s GCR 100 (11th edition) country survey on Italy. European Legal 500 2011 mentions the Italian competition team's "good track record in merger control matters, abuse of dominance cases and cartel defence".
Veronica is admitted to the Italian Bar and to the Belgian Bar, she is also a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
Representative Experience
- Representing the Italian subsidiary of the German multinational group in an international logistics cartel investigation before the Italian Competition Authority
- Advising a major pharmaceutical company in relation to competition law issues arising from their licence and distribution agreements
- Representing one of the leading companies active in the manufacturing and sales of private label pasta worldwide, in the alleged pasta cartel investigation under Article 81 of the EC Treaty, before the Italian Competition Authority, and the following appeal proceedings.
- Assisting two leading worldwide companies operating in the medical devices sector, on third parties’ complaints before the European Commission against the merger between Boston Scientific, Guidant and Abbott
- Advising major international beer manufacturers on potential complex acquisitions and regularly advising on compliance with antitrust rules in the beer sector
- Regular advice to major banking groups on their competition issues in relation to joint ventures and agreements in the financial services sector
- Assisting leading international private equity funds in the notification of their acquisitions to the competition authorities
- Representing global car manufacturers on the application of the Italian implementing legislation of the European Union
- Assisting a leading chemical company in the merger control procedure before the European Commission, for the acquisition of a major competitor, in one of the few cases of referral ex Article 22 Regulation EC 139/2004
- Representing a leading European aluminium manufacturer in the EC and international notifications of the acquisition of its main competitor
Education
- University of Turin Faculty of Jurisprudence, 1995
- University of Lyon Faculty of Law, 1993
Languages Spoken
- English
- French
- Italian
- Spanish
