Master Droit International & Européen
Droit des Affaires et de la Concurrence

Andra COTIGA est docteur en droit privé depuis 2010. L’intitulé de sa thèse est le suivant : « La concurrence institutionnelle dans l’Union Européenne : l’exemple du droit des sociétés ». Elle est professeur des universités catholiques depuis 2015, permanente de la Faculté depuis septembre 2010, directrice du Master 2 droit international et européen parcours droit des affaires et de la concurrence, co-directrice de l’International and European Law School (IELS), permanente de la Faculté et membre du C3RD. Elle enseigne les matières de droit international des sociétés et d’european contrat law. Ses domaines de recherches sont le droit commercial, le droit international privé et le droit européen et international des sociétés et de l’insolvabilité. Elle est membre du Global Legal Network (GLN) qui travaille sur les risques en droit européen.

Campus Lille

Mélanie Bruneau is a partner in the firm’s Brussels office. She advises on a broad range of areas in European Law. Her practice focuses on advising clients in a variety of industrial sectors, including transport, manufacturing, chemicals and IT, on the legal aspects of their business activities, with a particular emphasis on regulatory compliance.

Ms. Bruneau advises large multinationals on all aspects of EU competition law. She has significant experience in cartel investigations. Ms. Bruneau was also involved in the first cartel settlement and in the first hybrid cartel settlement before the European Commission. Ms. Bruneau regularly advises clients on global compliance programs regarding antitrust. She performs internal audits and compliance trainings. She frequently advises on the rules and procedures governing State aid and EU public procurement directives. In terms of compliance, Ms. Bruneau also advises on anti-corruption (including the OECD Convention, UK Bribery act and US FCPA) and on the anti-money laundering legislation.

Ms. Bruneau has significant experience in advising on vertical agreements including exclusive distribution and supply as well as selective distribution and franchising. She frequently advises on resale price maintenance (RPM) and price discrimination issues on behalf of some of the largest companies in the world. Ms. Bruneau frequently advises on restrictions of active and passive sales, non compete provisions but also on termination of distribution agreements. She also advises on parallel import restrictions and more generally on free movement of goods. Ms. Bruneau regularly advises on commercial agency agreements (including on compensation and termination issues).

She also advises on consumer protection legislation including unfair commercial practices as well as misleading and comparative advertising. She advises companies on distribution agreements including
e-commerce cross-border issues and distribution networks in Europe. She has assisted various clients in the setting up of their commercial websites in compliance with the e-commerce, e-sign and data protection legislations.

More generally, Ms. Bruneau has experience in EU legislation covering chemicals, including REACH – the EU Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals- and CLP – the
EU Regulation on Classification, Labelling and Packaging, the WEEE and RoHS Directives and industrial emissions. In the context of REACH, Ms. Bruneau was involved in the drafting of consortium agreements
for several trade associations and has assessed competition compliance of these agreements and drafted guidelines for collaboration with competitors. She is also involved in issues arising out of the practical
implementation of REACH requirements including in data sharing and issues concerning IP rights.

Over the past 10 years, Ms. Bruneau has developed a strong experience in a wide range of transportation matters, including aviation, road, maritime and rail transport where she advises clients on EU and French
regulatory issues and complex contractual arrangements. This includes noise reduction, regulatory issues associated with the transportation of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, perishables, jewelry and high-value
goods but also on slot allocation. Ms. Bruneau has recently advised on the emissions trading schemes (ETS) for aviation, on the guidelines for State aid to airports and airlines and on passenger rights. She has
also experience in EU sanctions, customs and export controls. Ms. Bruneau is a member of the Paris and Brussels Bars. Ms. Bruneau has contributed to Practical Law Company (PLC) on international sales and
marketing.

Laurent Binet is an in-house counsel specialized in competition law. He worked for more
than 10 years in competition authorities, especially as a case handler for the Autorité de
la concurrence. He now works in the legal department of a large French group where he
deals with litigation in competition law, mergers and state aid. Laurent Binet teaches procedure in competition law

Vincent Cassier est maître de conférences à l’UCLouvain, à la KULeuven et à l’Université de Lille où il enseigne la propriété intellectuelle en mettant l’accent sur le droit des brevets, les secrets commerciaux et le droit des contrats dans le domaine de la propriété intellectuelle.

Vincent Cassiers pratique le droit de la propriété intellectuelle et le droit des affaires au barreau de Bruxelles depuis 2001. Il est titulaire d’un doctorat en droit (thèse sur la protection juridique des informations commerciales) et d’un diplôme d’études spécialisées (LLM) en droit et gestion des technologies de l’information et de la communication de l’Université de Namur (CRID-FUNDP).

Vincent Cassiers est également Rédacteur en Chef de la Revue de droits intellectuels. L’Ingénieur-Conseil (ICIP). Il siège également au Conseil d’Administration de l’Association Internationale de Droit Economique (AIDE) et de l’Association belge de Droit Economique, Association pour le droit d’auteur (ABA). Il est également membre du Conseil belge de la propriété intellectuelle.

Giorgio Castaldo is a senior competition expert in the Directorate General for
Competition at the European Commission since 2007. While working for many years in the merger control field, he is now dealing with antitrust issues, notably 102 TFEU cases in the IT, Internet and Consumer electronic sector. Prior to joining the European
Commission, Giorgio Castaldo was a lawyer in Italy, working in national and international law firms. He graduated in law from the Federico II, University of Naples and holds an LL.M. degree from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) as well as an LL.M degree in competition law from King’s College, University of London.

Andrea joined Avisa Partners in July 2016, where he specialises in EU Competition and advises blue-chip clients on M&A, anti-trust, and cartel cases. Before joining Avisa Partners, Andrea spent six years in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), where he was involved in the handling of high-profile cases in the financial, transport, energy, and raw material industry sectors, both in M&A and cartels. Prior to this, Andrea worked as a business strategy consultant in Germany.

Katrin DECKERT is Associate Professor at Paris Nanterre University, and former Deputy
Secretary-General of the International Academy of Comparative Law. She studied law in different universities in France and Germany. Since 2009, she holds a PhD in German, French and European corporate and securities law from Panthéon-Sorbonne University (Paris, France) and the University of Hamburg (Germany). She was Research Fellow at PantheonSorbonne University (2001-2004), research and teaching assistant at Panthéon-Assas University in Paris (2004-2006), Research Assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg (2007-2009), Lecturer in German Law at Paris-Est Créteil University (2008-2010), and Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (2010-2011). She teaches and researches in German, French and European civil, corporate and capital markets law as well as in comparative law.

Alexis Aronio de Romblay est inscrit au barreau de Paris depuis 2007. Il a exercé pendant près de dix ans au sein du département corporate/m&a des cabinets Linklaters LLP (2007/2014) et Stephenson Harwood (2014/2016), avant de rejoindre en qualité d’associé le cabinet Lampidès & Potier en 2016.

Il intervient auprès d’une clientèle d’entrepreneurs, de start-ups, de PME et de dirigeants pour les assister dans l’ensemble de leurs projets, notamment création de société, levée de fonds (augmentation
de capital, pacte d’actionnaires), suivi juridique, opérations d’acquisitions ou de cessions, joint-venture, management package. Il assiste par ailleurs ses clients en matière de droit commercial (contrats, conditions générales de vente, d’achat ou d’utilisation) ainsi qu’en matière de situation de pré-insolvabilité ou d’insolvabilité. Il conseille également des fonds d’investissement dans le cadre de leurs opérations de prise de participation, du suivi juridique de leur portefeuille d’investissements et d’opérations de désinvestissement. Il est titulaire d’un DJCE / Master 2 Juriste d’affaires (Université de Rennes I, 2005) et d’un LLM International Business Law (Exeter University, 2006).

Véronique Goncalves est Avocat au Barreau de Paris depuis 2004 et Arbitre près du Centre d’Arbitrage de la Cour Commune de Justice et d’Arbitrage de l’OHADA. Après avoir collaboré dans un cabinet en droit des affaires développant une expertise en Afrique subsaharienne puis dans un cabinet en droit des sociétés et plus spécifiquement en fusions et acquisitions, Véronique Goncalves a fondé en 2011 le Cabinet Elysée Avocats à Paris. Le Cabinet intervient en droit des sociétés et projets internationaux ainsi qu’en droit OHADA auprès d’entreprises souhaitant s’implanter en Europe, en Afrique et en Asie.

Ruben Maximiano is a senior competition expert at the OECD. He is responsible within
the Competition Division of the OECD for Asia Pacific region and is also the OECD
responsible for the Competition Programme of the OECD/Korea Policy Centre, which
provides research and capacity building for Asia Pacific Officials (both competition
authorities and judges). You may find more on his current work at the OECD here:
https://www.oecd.org/korea/oecdkoreapolicycentrecompetitionprogramme.ht

Prior to working at the OECD, Ruben Maximiano worked at DG Competition at the European Commission and at the Portuguese Competition Authority. He has mainly worked in the merger control field, although he has worked also in European State Aid, and in cartels. Before that, Ruben Maximiano was a lawyer focusing primarily in competition law (dealing mostly with issues of abuse of dominance) and telecoms regulation fields, in Brussels and Lisbon.

Alessandro Nucara is currently a case handler at the European Commission (DG Competition). His particular expertise covers EU and national competition law, EU internal market issues and EU funding. Alessandro has worked on the widest possible spectrum of competition law matters, ranging from cartels to abuse of dominance, from mergers to State aid, from litigation to non-contentious work. Before joining the Commission, he has represented clients before the European Commission and EU Courts, national competition authorities (Italy, Spain and France) and before various public bodies (Italy, UK).

Alessandro has developed an extensive State aid expertise, having been involved in many State aid projects/cases from both an advisory and contentious perspectives for public and private sector clients, and in the last years from the regulator’s perspective. Alessandro also has an extensive experience inthe academic field, having published several articles on competition law matters and having lectured in different Universities in Europe. He is visiting professor at the Université Catholique de Lille since 2015.

Richard Pepper is a counsel based in the Brussels office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen &
Hamilton LLP. He advises on all aspects of European and UK competition law, including merger control, cartel investigations, behavioral matters, and litigation.
Mr. Pepper’s practice focuses on complex merger and cartel cases, where he has extensiveexperience in a wide variety of sectors, including the transportation, mining, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, agrochemicals, automotive, and music industries.
Mr. Pepper completed his LPC at the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice in 2004. He obtained a Graduate Diploma in Law from Oxford Brookes University in 2003 and a M.A. from the University of Oxford in 2002.
Mr. Pepper joined the firm in 2011 and became counsel in 2018. He is recognized as a Future Leader and a “star in the making” in Competition Law by Who’s Who Legal.
Mr. Pepper is a member of the Bar of England and Wales. He is a native English speaker and is proficient in French and Spanish.

Patricia Pérez Fernández works currently as EU and Competition Law Associate at
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in Brussels. Before, she worked as Case Handler
in a merger unit at the Directorate General of Competition of the European Commission. She also teaches EU and Competition Law at the Catholic University of Lille (undergraduate and master courses).
She holds a PhD (thesis on private enforcement of competition law), and a Law Degree from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (with honors), a Master in Fundamental Rights and Public Liberties (UCLM), and a Master in European Union Law (European Institute of Bilbao). During her PhD studies she has been a scholarship holder of the Spanish Ministry of Education, as well as of the German academic exchange service (DAAD), and the Max-Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Law in Munich. She used to be a teaching and research assistant at the University of Castilla-la Mancha. She was a finalist of the IX Young Jurists Awards (Garrigues), and won the second prize of the Centro de Estudios Financieros 2013 and 2018 awards.
She has published numerous book chapters and articles in various specialized magazines, on matters such as competition/ EU Law, compliance programs, or the attorney-client privilege, as well as being the coauthor of a monograph on Spanish competition law. She is regularly attending conferences as speaker (Queen
Mary University London, University Carlos III Madrid, University Rey Juan Carlos, etc.), and teaches EU and Competition Law in Master programs at the IE University and Centro de Estudios Garrigues, both in Madrid.
She speaks German, Spanish, English, and French.

Guillaume Perret is currently Case Handler at the Autorité de la concurrence (French
Competition Authority, Paris) and Lecturer in competition law at the universities of Paris,
Lille and Perpignan. Previously, he was Referendaire for several years at the Autorité de
la concurrence. Prior to joining this institution in 2013, he was Administrator for several
months at the Research and Documentation Directorate of the Court of Justice of the European Union (Luxembourg). He holds Master’s degrees in French and Spanish Business Law (2011) from the University of Paris Nanterre (Paris X), European Litigations (2012) from the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and a Master of Science in International Management and Business Law (2013) from the business school ESCP Europe (Paris and London).

Enrico est un économiste spécialisé dans l’économétrie et l’organisation industrielle. Il a plus de 10 ans d’expérience dans l’application de l’analyse économique à l’application des règles de concurrence, aux enquêtes sectorielles et aux questions de protection des consommateurs dans un large éventail de secteurs. Il travaille actuellement à la DG Concurrence au sein de l’unité responsable de l’application des règles antitrust dans les domaines de l’informatique, de l’internet et de l’électronique grand public. Auparavant, Enrico a été membre de l’équipe de l’économiste en chef de la DG Concurrence (2006-2011) et Directeur Adjoint de l’économétrie à l’Office of Fair Trading (2011-2013). Enrico a terminé ses études à l’Université Bocconi de Milan.

Bénédicte Scatolin est avocat au Barreau de Paris depuis 2003.
Elle a d’abord exercé en cabinets d’affaires internationaux, au sein du département
contentieux pénal et commercial du cabinet Gide Loyrette Nouel puis au sein du
cabinet De Gaulle Fleurance et Associés.
Elle a ensuite rejoint le Groupe Naval Group, leader européen du naval de défense et acteur majeur des énergies marines, où elle a occupé divers postes.
Forte de cette double pratique cabinet- entreprise, Bénédicte Scatolin vient de s’installer à son compte et de créer le cabinet QCD Avocat.
Le cabinet QCD Avocat intervient en droit des affaires, droit des contrats et droit des sociétés. Bénédicte Scatolin défend régulièrement des sociétés en matière de concurrence déloyale et dans le cadre de rupture de relations commerciales.
Elle est titulaire d’un Magistère Juriste d’Affaires, DJCE et DESS Droit des Affaires de l’Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas.
Elle intervient en français et en anglais

Cours : Droit du commerce international

Nicola Sibona est Responsable de projets dans le cadre des enquêtes de défense commerciale (antidumping, antisubventions et sauvegardes) à la Commission européenne (DG Commerce). Avant de rejoindre la Commission européenne, M. Sibona a travaillé comme avocat dans le domaine du droit commercial international à Bruxelles et à Rome.

Nicola Sibona est titulaire d’un Master du Collège d’Europe (Bruges), avec une spécialisation en droit communautaire. Il a également effectué ses études à l’Università degli Studi di Torino (Italie) et à l’Université de Maastricht (Pays-Bas).

João Vareda est un économiste à la DG Concurrence de la Commission européenne. Il a obtenu son doctorat en économie à la Nova School of Business and Economics. Il a ensuite travaillé comme économiste principal dans l’équipe de l’économiste en chef de l’Autorité portugaise de la concurrence avant de rejoindre la Commission européenne en 2013. João a publié plusieurs articles dans des revues à comité de lecture dans les domaines de la réglementation et de l’économie de la concurrence.

Reid Whitten works with clients around the world to plan, prepare, and succeed in global business transactions.
In the areas of sanctions, export and defense exports, anti-corruption, and CFIUS, he supports clients in detecting and deterring potential compliance issues as well as conducting and defending investigations and enforcements. Mr. Whitten also advises on anti-dumping, anti-money laundering, and anti-boycott regulations.
Mr. Whitten is a thought leader on cross-border business regulations. He is a visiting professor at the Law School of the Université Catholique de Lille, in France, and at Wake Forest University in the United States where he teaches courses on The Law of International Business. He writes and comments regularly and is called on by television news channels, national newspapers, and trade publications to provide analysis on the latest changes to cross-border transactional regulations. Mr. Whitten also conducts seminars on regulatory updates to industry groups in the United States, France, Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom. He speaks French fluently. Mr. Whitten is the Managing Partner of Sheppard Mullin’s London office and shares his time serving clients out of the Washington, D.C. office.