Dubravka Aksamovic

Dubravka Aksamovic (L.L.M, PhD) is full professor and Head of Department of Business Law at Faculty of Law Osijek, Croatia. She obtained her bachelor’s degree at Faculty of Law in Osijek. In 2003 she passed bar exam. In 2008 she defended her PhD in competition law. She regularly teaches several courses at undergraduate and post graduate studies: Contract Law, Company Law, Competition Law and Insolvency Law. She is a head of clinical program at Faculty of Law in Osijek and one of founders of Croatian Association for Competition Law and Policy. She holds Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in EU Competition Law. She regularly participates at international conferences in Croatia and abroad. She participated as a speaker at conferences in some of the most prominent wold universities such as Stanford University, Columbia University, City School of London, Humboldt University, ELTE Hungary etc. She is a co-author of two books and numerous articles, essays and chapters in books dedicated to different fields of law. She is member of several domestic and international associations, Croatian Academy of Legal Science, GAJE, ENCLE, ASCOLA.

Inge Bernaerts

Inge Bernaerts is Director for Strategy and Policy in the Competition Directorate General of the European Commission since August 2020. Prior to that, she held management positions in the Energy Directorate General of the Commission and was Head of Cabinet to Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility in the Juncker Commission. Between 2003 and 2010, Inge worked as case handler in antitrust and state aids and as Assistant to the Directorate General for Competition. Before joining the Commission, she practiced competition law at the Brussels bar with Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot and Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer and she lectured European law seminars at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Inge holds a law degree from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and a post-graduate degree in European law from the Universität Saarbrucken. She is married and has two sons.

Ondrej Blažo

Ondrej Blažo graduated from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava as well as from the Faculty of National Economy at the University of Economics in Bratislava. He is an Associate Professor in international law specializing in EU law, EU competition law, and economic integration, currently Director of the Institute of European Law, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law of Comenius University Bratislava, and editor in chief of Bratislava Law Review. Previously he has been a senior state counsel at the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic as a case handler and at the legal and EU affairs department (co-authored several legislative documents on Slovak competition rules). He is the author and co-author of publications focused particularly on competition law, EU competition law, and EU public procurement law, including commentary on the Slovak Act on Protection Competition. His research was supported by national and international grants, including Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "Rule of Law in the European Union", APVV "Effectivization of legal regulation of public procurement and its application in the context of EU law" (leader of the research team), APVV "Effectiveness of legal regulation of protection of economic competition in the context of its application in practice".

Ivančica Bobek

Professional Experience

March 2013 - November 2015: Associate at law firm of Albina Dlačić where I was practicing broadly in different areas of law, with special emphasis on Commercial, Corporate, Civil, Property and Land Register Law, as well as providing legal advice and drafting legal contracts and legal opinions on competition legal matters.

December 2015 - May 2016: Associate at law firm of Ljiljana Maravić-Pirš.

May 2016 - January 2018: I had my own law firm.

March 2018 - February 2022: case handler at Croatian Competition Agency, Department of Legislation and Comparative Practices

From March 2022 – ongoing: I am employed as an attorney-at-law by the law firm Gugić, Kovačić & Krivić.

Education

November 2012 - I graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, with a concentration in Competition Law, Industrial Property Law, Settlement of Disputes through Arbitration and Mediation, Land Registry Law, Copyright Law

October 2015 - passed the bar exam

October 2017 - General Course on Intellectual Property (DL-101HR), State Intellectual Property Office in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

October 2019 – ongoing: a postgraduate specialist study in European law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb. It is still ongoing.

January 2021 - December 2021: LL.M. in Antitrust Law and Corporate Law and Practice, Penn State University in Pennsylvania, USA.

Mislav Bradvica

Position Title and No.: Attorney at law

Name of Expert: Mislav Bradvica

Country of Citizenship/Residence: Croatia

Summary:

Mislav Bradvica is a Croatian lawyer with substantial experience in corporate law, litigations, and regulatory mandates. He practices corporate and competition law and specifically deals with legal issues of the companies operating in regulated industries. He advises domestic and foreign companies from the banking sector, technology sector as well as the trade, ITT, telecommunications, and media sectors. Mislav Bradvica previously worked as an in-house lawyer, but also gained work experience in the Croatian competition Agency, where he was in charge of administrative procedures, in particular the abuse of a dominant position and procedures for establishing violations of regulations in regulated activities.

Luka Burilović

Luka Burilović, PhD has been the president of the Croatian Chamber of Economy since 2014, now serving his third term as the head of the CCE. After receiving his postgraduate specialist degree in economy and management from the Faculty of Economy in Osijek, he received his PhD from the same faculty. He is the author of several papers from the field of economy. Before being elected for the president of the CCE he was the president of the management board of the company Sladorana. He also worked as the assistant minister in the Ministry of agriculture, forestry and water affairs. The main goals of his third term as the president of the CCE are sustainable development and green transition, digital transformation, the future of labor and the competitiveness of human resources, EU politics and their effect on the economy and the internationalization of business.

Vlatka Butorac Malnar

Vlatka Butorac Malnar is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka, where she teaches Competition law and European private law to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She is the vice-president of the Croatian Competition Law and Policy Association, a non-governmental advisor for the ICN, a member of ICC, a member of the scientific board of Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies and a member of the International advisory board of Legal Yearbook IPP-PF. She holds the LL.M and S.J.D. degrees from the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. Over the years, she researched in a number of academic institutions (Cornell Law School, NY, USA; Max-Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg, Germany; European University Institute, Florence, Italy). Her work in the area of competition has been published by a some of most renown international publishers. She is engaged in educational and advisory activities for legal practitioners.

Antonio Capobianco

Deputy Head of Division, OECD Competition Division

Antonio Capobianco is currently the Deputy Head of the OECD Competition Division. In this position, he is responsible for the proceedings of the OECD Competition Committee and for other work streams of the Division. Over the years at the OECD, Mr Capobianco has coordinated a series of OECD projects and work streams and has authored numerous Background Notes of the Secretariat on a wide range of competition law enforcement and policy topics. He has led many in-country projects to support domestic reforms and he regularly represents the OECD at international events.

Prior to joining the OECD in 2007, Mr Capobianco was a Counsel in the Competition Department of WilmerHale LLP, based in Brussels. He also spent three years with the Italian Competition Authority. Mr Capobianco authored several articles on antitrust issues published on major international law journals specialized in competition law and he co-authored textbooks on Italian and European competition law and economics. He regularly speaks at international conferences on antitrust and regulation issues. Mr. Capobianco graduated in law at the L.U.I.S.S. - Guido Carli in Rome and holds LL.M. degrees from the Law School of the New York University and from the Institute of European Studies of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Luca Crocco

Luca Crocco is a partner in the Brussels office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the firm’s Global Antitrust and Competition Practice. His practice focuses on European and Italian competition law. Prior to joining Latham & Watkins in 2005, he practiced competition law and corporate law for four years at other leading international law firms in Milan. He assists international companies before the European Commission and the Italian Competition Authority in cartel and abuse of dominance proceedings. In addition, he assists clients in merger control proceedings before the European Commission and the Italian authority and coordinate multi-jurisdictional merger filings for global transactions. He is a founder of Antitrustitalia, a networking group for Brussels-based Italian antitrust professionals, including enforcement officers, lawyers, economists, corporate counsel and scholars. Luca holds a degree in Law with Honours from the University of Siena and LLMs from the University of Oxford and the Collège d’Europe in Bruges.

Kati Cseres

Kati Cseres is an Associate Professor of Law at the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG), University of Amsterdam. She is a Senior Fellow of the Amsterdam Center for Law & Economics (ACLE). She is an external research fellow at the Center for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence, Budapest.

She is editor of the Journal Legal Issues of Economic Integration.

Kati has been Non-governmental adviser to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) between 2014 and 2020. In 2018 she worked as a Distinguished Guest Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. For 2022, she was selected as a Non-Resident Research Fellow, at the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University Chicago.

Kati has considerable experience in training national judges in EU competition law, consumer law and EU state aid law (Re-Jus project and the EEUStAID project 'Building Central and Eastern European judicial capacities for the enforcement of EU State aid law').

Kati’s research expertise lies in (EU) competition law, consumer law and sector regulation, most notably energy law. She investigates how legal rules, formal and informal institutions of consumer law, sector regulation and competition laws are connected (or disconnected) and reinforced (or undermined) in the design and oversight of markets. Her research agenda focuses on fundamental transformations in societies and economies that disrupt prevailing models of economic law enforcement.

She was the co-investigator of the ‘Priority Setting Project’, that analyzed the legal, economic and institutional factors that influence setting enforcement priorities by the 27 national competition authorities in the EU. The project uses a novel empirical methodology and systematically analyses the competition authorities’ priority-setting policies and practices. The project has been funded by the UK’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account. For the project ‘Priority Setting Discretion’ Kati was selected as a Non-Resident Research Fellow, at the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University Chicago. This project will explore and analyze how administrative discretion, as the core component of antitrust agencies’ priority setting powers, can be structured and controlled in order to guarantee effective competition law enforcement.

Renato Ferrandi

Renato joined the OECD in May 2019 as the responsible for the capacity-building programme for competition authorities in Eastern European countries provided by the Regional Competition Centre in Budapest.

Renato is an Italian national and has more than twenty years of experience on competition and consumer protection at the Italian Competition Authority. He was a case manager of numerous investigations, carried out several market studies and drafted formal opinions addressed to the Government or the Parliament.

Prior to the OECD, he was Senior Official for International Affairs. He represented the Italian Competition Authority in International Fora (including the OECD), managed bilateral cooperation projects and participated as speaker in international exchanges and capacity building projects.

Between 2010 and 2013 he was Seconded National Expert at the DG COMP of the European Commission.

Marija Filipovska

Partner | Corporate/M&A, Competition

Marija Filipovska is Partner of the CMS Macedonian office. She has more than 20 years of experience in legal work in North Macedonia and the Balkan region. She specialises in M&A, corporate, commercial and competition law matters.

Marija Filipovska was involved in the biggest commercial projects in North Macedonia and in the Balkan region. She has extensive experience in providing legal advice and assistance to major international clients, including legal advice on mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, buyouts, privatizations and joint ventures.

She has offered advice in several project financings in North Macedonia as well as the privatization of some of the biggest banks in the region; furthermore, she has advised clients in large-scale commercial projects and transactions in North Macedonia and the Balkan region.

Marija Filipovska has an LL.M. degree in European Business Law at Belgrade University in cooperation with Nancy University in France.

Marija is fluent in Macedonian, Serbian and English.

Bojana Ignjatovic

Bojana Ignjatovic is a Partner at RBB Economics, based in London and Brussels. With over 20 years’ experience in competition economics, Bojana has led RBB Economics teams in some of the largest competition law investigations across Europe. Prior to joining RBB in 2007, Bojana worked as the Deputy Head of Merger Economics at the UK Office of Fair Trading (now the CMA).

Bojana has particular expertise in EU merger control: her recent cases include Veolia/Suez, Alstom/Bombardier, Siemens/ Alstom, Spirit AeroSystems/Asco, Nidec/Embraco, and Comcast/Sky. She also has extensive experience on competition law investigations, including on many recent landmark cases, including on MFN clauses in online hotel agents (acting for Booking.com), excessive pricing (advising Pfizer) and loyalty rebates (advising Unilever, MSD).

Olivier Guersent

Director General; European Commission; Directorate-General for Competition

OLIVIER GUERSENT graduated with distinction from the “Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux” in 1983. He joined the French Ministry of Economy and Finance in 1984, where he carried out many investigations for the French Competition Authority.

He joined the European Commission in 1992, initially with the "Merger Task Force" in the Directorate-General for Competition. Since then, he has alternated between the private offices of a number of European Commissioners (Karel Van Miert, Michel Barnier and Neelie Kroes) and DG Competition (successively Deputy Head of Unit in charge of cartels, Head of Unit in charge of policy and coordination of cases, Head of Unit in charge of merger control, Acting Director “Transport, postal and other services" and, from 2009, Director responsible for the fight against cartels. From 2010 to 2014 he was the head of the private office of Michel Barnier, Commissioner for Internal Market and Services. Having held the position of Deputy Director-General since July 2014, Olivier Guersent has been Director-General of the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union from 1 September 2015 to 31 December 2019. As of 1st January 2020 he is the Director General of the Directorate General for Competition.

Married and a father of three children, Olivier Guersent is a member of the board of of the non-profit organisation Aremis that provides medical care in the home, primarily to cancer patients in the Brussels area. He is a regular lecturer to postgraduate university students.

Srđan Janković

Senior Attorney | Head of Competition and TMC

Srđan Janković has more than 15 years of experience and has a strong reputation in the market as an experienced competition lawyer.

He represents clients in all aspects of cartels and abuse of dominance matters, including appeal procedures before Serbian and Montenegrin courts. Alongside his antitrust practice, he regularly assists clients with navigating cross-border merger control reviews.

Srđan also regularly advises clients on market sector investigations and studies and his extensive practice puts a particular focus on retail, telecommunications, IT, automotive, and healthcare sectors. His hands-on approach and vast experience in dawn-raids and digital forensics make him the trusted adviser of many pre-eminent clients in Serbia, North Macedonia and in Montenegro.

Srđan has also conceptualized and led a number of tailor-made compliance programs and in-house trainings for clients.

Before joining CMS Belgrade, he served as a senior advisor in the Antitrust Division of the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition.

Srđan is fluent in Serbian and English.

Mirta Kapural

Mirta Kapural is the president of the Competition Council of Croatian Competition Agency since 1 October 2021 when she was confirmed by the Croatian Parliament for this function after working as a member of the Competition Council since 25 January 2019. Until then, she worked in the Department for International and European Cooperation of Croatian Competition Agency where her main tasks included: relations of the Competition Agency with European Commission and EU competition authorities within ECN and within ICN, OECD, implementation of EU funded projects and participation in the negotiations and drafting of new EU legal instruments in competition law.

Ms Kapural chaired hair the working group for the preparation of Draft Law on Amendments to the Competition Act (2020) for transposition of the EU Directive 2019/1 (ECN+Directive) and working group for the preparation of Law on damages claims for the breach of national and EU competition law (transposition of EU Directive 2014/104).

After completed Law Faculty in Zagreb, she did her Master in European studies at the University of Sussex, UK. In 2012 she obtained her PhD in Company law and Competition law at University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law, PhD Thesis: “Application of leniency institute for immunity of fines or reduction of fines in competition law“.

Ms Kapural is an author of numerous expert articles in national and EU Competition Law published in national and international expert magazines and books. She is a regular participant and lecturer of EU and national Competition law at national and international seminars and conferences as well as the author of the seminar and regular lecturer on EU and national Competition law in the Public School for Civil Servants. She is also engaged as short term and medium term expert for competition law in different EU funded projects.

Ms Mirta Kapural, PhD

Present position: President of the Competition Council, Croatian Competition Agency

2019-2021 Member of the Competition Council, Croatian Competition Agency

2007-2019 Department for International Cooperation, Croatian Competition Agency. Main tasks included: coordinating international cooperation of the Competition Agency, especially in relations with European Commission and EU competition authorities within ECN and with ICN working groups, ICC Competition Commission, OECD.

2019-2021 Chair of the working group for the preparation of Draft Law on Amendments to the Competition Act (2020) for transposition of the EU Directive 2019/1 (ECN+Directive)

2018-2019 Medium-term expert in EU Taiex project-Assistance to Turkish Cypriot Community in the field of EU Competition Policy

2018-2019 Short-term expert for chapter Competition in EU twinning project Support Kosovo institutions on SAA implementation

2017-2018 Chair of Croatian delegation in the negotiations of ECN+Directive on fostering independence of national competition authorities

2016-2017 Chair of the working group for the preparation of Law on damages claims for the breach of national and EU competition law (transposition of EU Directive 2014/104)

2014-2016 Guest lecturer of Competition law at faculty of Economy and Forensic Studies in Split

2013-2019 Author of the education and regular lecturer on EU and national Competition law in the Public School for Civil Servants

2013-2016 Chair of the Competition Network for European Energy Community

2012 PhD in Competition Law and Company Law, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law, PhD Thesis: “Application of leniency institute for immunity of fines or reduction of fines in competition law“

2011-2010 guest lecturer of Company Law and Contract law at the Faculty of Economy in Zagreb

Since 2009 lecturer of EU and national Competition law in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs for Croatian civil servants and at national and international seminars and conferences

2007 Traineeship in the European Commission, DG Competition

2006-2009 a member of the Working Groups for Negotiations with the EU, chapters “Energy”, “Competition” and “Free movement of Workers”

Since 2004 employed in Croatian Competition Agency, worked as a case handler and Head of Section-market for services, deputy Head of International Cooperation Department

Between August and October 2001 Governmental Representative in the UN Office for Human Rights in Geneva

From 2001 until 2004 legal adviser in the Governmental Office for Human Rights with special emphasis on the international cooperation with United Nations and EU institutions

2000-2001 trainee in the European Commission, DG Environment From 1999-2001 legal adviser in the Ministry of European integration

1999 completed Masters in «Contemporary European Studies” at the University of Sussex, Sussex European Institute, Brighton, United Kingdom

1998 graduated from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb and awarded with Chancellor's award and with the Scholarship from Croatian Government for post-graduate studies in the U.K.

Author of numerous expert articles in national and EU Competition Law

Foreign languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese

Professional interests: Competition law, Company law, EU law and International relations

Matej Kavčič

Matej Kavčič is a partner and a cofounder of the Law firm Kavčič, Bračun & Partners, o.p., d.o.o. Matej has extensive knowledge and experience in competition law (began his career at CPA and has worked in renowned firms before establishing his own law firm). He has been involved as a lead lawyer in the majority of antitrust and significant merger control cases in Slovenia and has represented major domestic and international clients from various industry sectors in the last seventeen years in CPA, EC and civil litigation procedures.

Matej has participated also in many transactions in the field of mergers and acquisitions of companies and in the privatization processes, where he represented the interests of both buying and selling parties as well as the interests of target companies. He regularly advises the clients on corporate, real estate and commercial issues and is representing them before courts and regulatory bodies.

Matej is also a founding member of Competition Section of Slovenian Bar Association. Among other things, he regularly lectures at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana and attends both domestic and foreign internationally recognized conferences.

Irini Kefalogianni

Irini Kefalogianni is the Head of Competition Law & Sustainability at Coca-Cola HBC Group, leading the competition law compliance program and the Group legal support of sustainability initiatives, across the 29 markets in which the Coca-Cola HBC Group operates. Irini is a lawyer with over 20 years of experience working in international law firms, regulators and FMCGs, including Diageo and Coca-Cola HBC. Her expertise covers cross-border corporate and project finance transactions and M&As, as well as a wide range of commercial and competition law matters facing in-house legal teams of large FMCGs. In her past roles, Irini served as in house legal manager, responsible for several countries including Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Switzerland. Irini’s commitment to team work, people development and personal growth has helped her build strong legal teams, recognized for their high performance, great team work, strong values and top engagement. Irini holds a bachelor from the Athens School of Law, a Corporate LL.M. from New York University, School of Law, and is currently studying for the Post-Graduate Diploma in Competition Law at Kings College, London. She is a Greek lawyer, admitted to the Athens Bar Association, and an active member in several committees at the Greek Union of Industries (SEV), including the SEV Committee on Competition Law.

Robert Kordić, dr. jur. (München)

Associate | Corporate/M&A, Competition

Robert's practice encompasses a wide range of experience across the spectrum of competition law matters, including representing clients in EU and Slovenian merger control procedures, sector/market investigations, abuse of dominance investigations and competition law risk assessments.

For his competition experience and know-how, he is frequently onboarded by Corporate / M&A team to not just watch over the competition parts of the transaction but also as a project leader and coordinator of multijurisdictional transactions.

Robert advises clients across a broad range of industries, most recently with a focus on technology, media, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and chemical. He has been a driving force in winning engagements for several VOD streaming networks in the past period.

He completed his doctorate studies at Ludwig Maximilian University, München, Germany with a successful defence of his PhD thesis ”Patentpools: A contribution to the correction of misalignments in competition law”.

Robert is fluent in Slovenian, German, English, Bosnian and Croatian.

Andrej Matvoz

Andrej Matvoz graduated from the Faculty of Law in Maribor. He comes from an entrepreneurial family, so he started gathering work experience and building up his work ethics from young age. He started his career as a lawyer in the small municipality of Hoče-Slivnica, and continued later as a lawyer at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology as a custodian of contracts within the EU public tenders for co-financing companies. During this time, he also started his own entrepreneurial path, where he gained experience in the field of law as an independent legal advisor. He began his term as director of the Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for the Protection of Competition in 2015, where he headed the agency until July 2017 as acting director, and from 1 July 2017 as director with a full five-year term. In recent years, as an expert in the field of competition law, he regularly attends public consultations, workshops and seminars in the specific field, both at home and abroad. During his mandate as director of AVK, among other regular activities of the agency, he also strengthened and actively participated in the field of Public Procurement and Protection of Public Interest within AVK, reorganized and accelerated decision-making processes, and introduced many good practices in the field of competition protection. He also strongly advocates a renewal of the legal framework in the context of the new competition law to make it easier, faster and more effective to enforce and protect competition in the economic area of Slovenia.

Darija Ognjenovic

Darija Ognjenovic (LL.M) is a Partner at the Belgrade law firm Prica & Partners. She graduated and obtained her LL.M. degree from the Faculty of Law of Belgrade University. Darija joined Prica & Partners in 2004 and became a partner in 2009.

She provides competition law advice regarding mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, as well as in relation to state aid and public procurement.

As a leader of the firm’s competition practice, Darija has been in charge of many significant projects for major international companies in local procedures before the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) for obtaining merger control approvals of their global mergers (Schering Plough/Merck, Nokia/Siemens, OTP Bank/Findomestic Bank, acquisition of 70% shares in the Serbian private healthcare provider Bel Medic by Acibadem Healthcare Group, acquisition by LafargeHolcim of Bridgestone's Firestone line of building products, several acquisitions of nut producers by Ferrero etc.)

She was also in charge of local procedures for acquisitions, such as global merger of Holcim/Lafarge and sale by Innova Capital of Trimo Group’s Serbian subsidiary to Kingspan, both in the Phase 2 procedures;

Darija represents her clients before the CPC in various antitrust related procedures. In the most recent case she has assisted a publishing company Klett in dawn raid and pending antitrust proceedings regarding alleged abuse of dominance on the market for primary school textbooks in the Republic of Serbia.

Darija contributed the Serbian chapter of Kluwer’s “Competition Law in Central and Eastern Europe: A Practitioner’s Guide”. Her LL.M. thesis was “Comparative presentation of merger clearance rules in US, EU and Serbia”.

Darija is a member of Belgrade Bar Association, International League of Competition Law (LIDC), Law Society of England and Wales Competition Section (non-practicing member), Women's Competition Network, ECDA (European Cartel Damages Association). In addition, she has been elected as Arbitrator of the Permanent Arbitration Court of Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

With over 20 years of professional experience, Darija is an established and well-known legal practitioner who is, according to IFLR 1000, “roundly praised by her clients”. They include HBO, Ferrero, H&M, Procter & Gamble, Mercator, Corteva, Asseco SEE, Sportina, Ringier Axel Springer, among others.

Avdylkader Mucaj

Dr. Avdylkader Mucaj, obtained his PhD at University of Ljubljana-Faculty on Law on European Law, whereas his thesis was entirely focused on competition law. Mr. Mucaj holds also an LL.M. in European Law from Stockholm University, Sweden. In addition, Mr. Mucaj spent also two years as PhD researcher in the field of EU Law at Free University of Berlin, in Germany. He taught different law subjects at University of Prizren in Kosovo, including Business Law. Dr. Mucaj has published in the field of competition law, mostly reflecting competition law developments and enforcement in Kosovo, such as: ‘Challenges in Following the EU Enforcement Jurisprudence’ Journal of European Competition Law & Practice and “Competition Law Framework in Kosovo and the Role of the EU in Promoting Competition Policies in Other Countries and Regions Wishing to Join the Block” Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies-YARS. Mr. Mucaj has participated to the e 6th Zagreb Competition Law and Policy Conference in Memory of Dr. Vedran Šoljan, Challenges to the Enforcement of Competition Rules in Central and Eastern Europe, 12–13 December 2019, Zagreb, Croatia. His current research interest is focused on public enforcement challenges of competition law in Kosovo; competition law in the digital markets; as well as the interplay between competition and public procurement via online platforms.

Igor Mucalo

Attorney at law / owner of Law Office Mucalo

Since 2008 Igor is a licensed Croatian attorney at law and the owner of Law Office Mucalo. His primary practice focus is competition law where he has represented clients in a number of high-profile cases before the Croatian Competition Agency and the High Commercial Court, advised clients on all aspects of competition law compliance and held competition law trainings to a number of major Croatian companies. He is a member of the ICC Croatia Commission for Competition and the Work Group of the Croatian Bar for Competition Law. Since 2014 he is constantly ranked in CHAMBERS EUROPE, Europe’s Leading Lawyers for Business as one of the leading Croatian practitioners in the area of competition / antitrust. He is passionate about his family and friends, basketball and rock music.

Kamil Nejezchleb

Kamil Nejezchleb is the acting Vice-chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition and is responsible for the Competition Division since 1 April 2021. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno and the Faculty of Business and Management of the Brno University of Technology in 2007. He completed the doctoral program at the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in 2019. His dissertation focused on the modernization of legal instruments for detection of cartel agreements and he also implemented several specific projects which focused on different aspects of competition law throughout his doctoral studies. In November 2008, he joined the Office and since then has served in several positions. For the last five years, he worked as the Head of the Unit of Cartels and the Deputy Director of the Department of Cartels. He also taught commercial and trade law at the Public Administration Academy in Brno. He has been engaged in long-term cooperation with the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University where he gives specialized lectures on competition law and economics. He has gained extensive experience with the application of competition law abroad. He participated in a six-month internship at the European Commission - DG COMP and is active within the European Competition Network and International Competition Network. He also collaborated in the creation of the methodology for the leniency and settlement programmes and the preparation of recent amendments of the Act on the Protection of Competition. He engaged in training of contracting authorities on the issue of bid rigging on a long-term basis. He published several expert articles on competition. He is the co-author of the publication Economic Methods in Competition Law.

Jasminka Pecotić Kaufman

Jasminka Pecotić Kaufman is a Professor of Law at the University of Zagreb (Department of Law, Faculty of Economics and Business). She teaches Competition Law, and Commercial and Company Law. She is President of the Croatian Competition Law and Policy Association (HDPPTN), Co-Director of ASCOLA (Academic Society for Competition Law) South-East Europe Chapter, Member of the Editorial Board of the Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies (YARS), Member of the International Advisory Board of the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies (Loyola University Chicago), and Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) for the International Competition Network (ICN). Her recent research has focused on the challenges of enforcing competition rules in European post-socialist countries. Professor Pecotić Kaufman’s work has appeared in the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, the World Competition Law and Economics Review, and the Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, among other journals. She co-authored several books on competition law, including Competition Law and State Aid Law (in Croatian, University of Zagreb Faculty of Law, 2021) and Competition Law in Croatia(Kluwer, 2019).

Rastko Petaković

Rastko Petaković is a Senior Partner at Karanovic & Partners. He is ranked by independent directories as the leading competition and M&A lawyer in the country and specialized in complex competition and business regulations. He focuses on new technologies, telecom and media. More recently he has been an active supporter of the bustling local startup scene and an advocate for modernizing regulations supporting innovation and new technologies.

Mateja Rajacic

Mateja is Head of Ethics & Compliance at Philip Morris International, responsible for UK and Nordics markets. In her role, she is responsible for maintaining a culture of integrity, and ensuring that the highest standards of ethical conduct are followed throughout the business. Mateja is an experienced in-house counsel who started her career in 2008 in Dukat, Croatia’s leading dairy company. In 2011, she moved to Philip Morris International’s Croatian affiliate, providing legal support to markets within the Central Europe South Cluster. She progressed to the position of Head of Legal for Croatia and Slovenia, from which she joined the UK legal team in 2018, and a year later moved to the Ethics & Compliance department, her current role. Mateja holds a legal degree from the University of Zagreb, where she graduated with magna cum laude. Mateja also holds two postgraduate diplomas from King’s College London in Economics for Competition Law and EU Competition Law, and was part of the PMI EU Competition Law working group. Mateja is passionate about self-growth, and is certified business coach and NLP practitioner. She also loves ice-cream.

Alexandr Svetlicinii

Alexandr Svetlicinii is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Macau, where he also serves as Programme Coordinator for the Master of International Business Law in English Language. Prior to joining the University of Macau, Alexandr Svetlicinii held the position of senior researcher at the Jean Monnet Chair of European Law of the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia. Svetlicinii received his law degree at the Free International University of Moldova (Chisinau), LL.M in International Business Law with specialization in EU Law at the Central European University (Budapest), Master of Research (Law) and PhD in Law at the European University Institute (Florence). His focus research areas are in in the fields of competition law and international economic law, including dispute settlement. The recent monographs include Chinese State Owned Enterprises and EU Merger Control (Routledge, 2020) and Competition Law in Moldova (Kluwer, 2018). In addition to his academic activities, Prof. Svetlicinii acted as a non-governmental advisor to the Mergers Group of International Competition Network and served as an expert in a number of research projects related to competition law enforcement in the EU. Since 2020, he serves as co-director of the South East Europe chapter of the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA).

Dunja Šimunić Mehdin

Dunja Šimunić Mehdin graduated from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, passed the bar exam and holds an MBA from the Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb. She is currently the Director of the Legal and Security Department at Coca-Cola HBC Adria and is responsible for implementation of business strategies in the field of legal and security affairs in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. Prior to joining Coca-Cola HBC Adria in 2018, she held various key positions in the field of legal affairs at Agrokor d.d. and was a member of several supervisory boards in the Agrokor Group. She also worked in the legal department in the leading dairy industry company in Croatia, Dukat d.d. for more than three years. She is a President of Commission for Competition in ICC Croatia (International Chamber of Commerce) and a member of Competition Committee at BIAC The Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD. She values excellence, continuous learning and improvement and is strongly committed to developing effective teams.

Marija Zrno Prošić

Partner | Corporate and M&A, Competition

Maria Zrno Prošić is engaged on corporate, competition law and data protection mandates. She has participated in various national and international M&A transactions concerning real estate, development of shopping centres, renewable energy sources, investments in industry and new technologies, etc. Marija Zrno Prošić regularly represents clients in EU and merger control matters and on all matters arising from Croatian and European antitrust law. She has significant experience providing compliance and dawn-raid advice and trainings. Marija Zrno Prošić also regularly supports clients with strong distribution networks and collaborative business models. Her clients include mostly international clients from energy, life sciences, hotels and leisure, and automotive sectors and industries. She completed her master's degree in European law at the College of Europe in Bruges. She is fluent in Croatian and English.

Client Quotes

‘Marija Zrno is knowledgeable and approachable. Marija Zrno works well with legal counsels of the counter party and endeavours to find balanced legal solutions.’

Legal 500, 2020

Recommendations

LEGAL 500

2020, 2021 Next Generation Partners Commercial, Corporate and M&A, Privatisation, projects and energy, EU and competition

2017 – 2019 Next Generation Lawyer Commercial, Corporate And M&A & EU And Competition

IFLR 1000

Rising Star 2020 – 2021