Geoffrey Kalantari

Geoffrey Kalantari

Associate

Geoffrey Kalantari is a member of Antitrust and EU Competition team of our Brussels office. Prior to joining Covington, Mr. Kalantari served as a case handler at the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission. At the Commission, Mr. Kalantari gained significant experience in the practice of State aid law, handling State aid complaints and notifications in the fields of Post, Health Care, Culture, and Public transport.

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The GC’s rulings in Fiat and Starbucks : a green light with a warning

By Johan Ysewyn, Sophie Bertin and Geoffrey Kalantari on Posted in Competition, Competition Law, Competition Law in Europe, State Aid, Taxation
On 24 September 219, the General Court (“GC”) delivered its long awaited judgments on the European Commission’s (“Commission”) decisions finding that tax rulings granted to Starbucks and Fiat constituted State aid. The GC annulled the Commission’s decision on Starbucks but upheld the Commission’s decision on Fiat. The judgements confirm that State aid rules enable the … Continue Reading

Covington Alert: Implications and Questions Arising From The Supreme Court’s Antitrust Ruling in Apple, Inc. v. Pepper

By Geoffrey Kalantari on Posted in Antitrust, Competition Law, Damages, Technology
On May 13, 2019, the Supreme Court (“the Court”) announced its 5-4 decision in Apple, Inc. v. Pepper, permitting iPhone users to proceed with an antitrust suit against Apple alleging that it monopolized the retail market for iPhone apps. The Court emphasized that it decided only the threshold issue, ruling that the iPhone users were … Continue Reading

Covington Alert: English Competition Appeals Tribunal to Reconsider £14 Billion Class Action Against MasterCard

By Geoffrey Kalantari on Posted in Banking & Finance, Competition Law, Competition Law in Europe, Damages, United Kingdom
On 16 April 2019, England’s Court of Appeal ruled that the Competition Appeals Tribunal (the “CAT”) had erred in rejecting certification of former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks’ class action against MasterCard, for £14 billion.  As a result, the CAT will now reconsider whether to certify the class. The decision has lowered the bar that will need … Continue Reading

An aid scheme or not? The GC annuls the Commission’s decision on Belgium’s system of excess profit tax rulings

By Johan Ysewyn, Sophie Bertin and Geoffrey Kalantari on Posted in Competition Law, Competition Law in Europe, State Aid, Taxation
On 14 February 2019, the General Court (“GC”) annulled the European Commission’s (“Commission”) decision of 11 January 2016 declaring Belgium’s system of excess profit rulings as an aid scheme incompatible with the Internal Market.  The Commission had ordered the Belgian authorities to recover around € 700 million from at least 35 companies that had benefited … Continue Reading

Application of the private investor test in State aid cases: lessons from the EDF saga

By Sophie Bertin and Geoffrey Kalantari on Posted in Competition Law, private investor test, State Aid, Taxation
On 13 December 2018, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) rejected an appeal by Electricité de France (“EDF”) against a General Court (“GC”) judgment confirming a Commission decision ordering France to recover EUR 1.37 billion in State aid from EDF (Case C-221/18 P EDF v Commission). The ECJ judgment confirms that the aid, which had … Continue Reading

“Four-to-three” mergers no longer taboo? The Commission unconditionally approves the acquisition of Tele2 NL by T-Mobile NL

By Kevin Coates, Geoffrey Kalantari and Jonathan Benjamin on Posted in Competition Law, Competition Law in Europe, Mergers, Telecommunications
In November 2018, following an in-depth Phase 2 investigation, the European Commission (“Commission”) unconditionally approved the acquisition of Tele2 NL by T-Mobile NL, respectively the fourth and third largest players in the Dutch retail mobile telecoms market. The merged entity remains the third largest player in this market after KPN and VodafoneZiggo. This transaction is the first “four-to-three” … Continue Reading

CAT upholds Ping’s fine: lessons on online sales bans

By Miranda Cole and Geoffrey Kalantari on Posted in Antitrust, Competition Law, Competition Law in Europe, Digital, Fashion & Accessories
On August 24, 2017, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) fined Ping Europe Limited (“Ping”) £1.45 million for breaching UK and EU competition law by instituting a ban on online sales of Ping golf clubs.  Ping challenged the CMA’s decision before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”).  On September 7, 2018, the CAT dismissed the … Continue Reading

Is the heat on in the syndicated loans market? Spanish Competition Authority fines banks for price fixing on interest rate derivatives

By Johan Ysewyn, Sophie Bertin and Geoffrey Kalantari on Posted in Competition Law, Competition Law in Europe
On 13 February 2018, the Spanish Markets and Competition Commission (“CNMC”) fined four major Spanish banks €91 million for colluding to fix the price of interest-rate derivatives (“IRDs”) attached to syndicated loans above market price.  The decision is an additional indication that syndicated loans are increasingly coming under the scrutiny of competition authorities, after the … Continue Reading

Jumping the gun: some clarification from the Court of Justice

By Johan Ysewyn, Andrea Zulli and Geoffrey Kalantari on Posted in Competition Law, Competition Law in Europe
Introduction In a recent blog post where we reflected on DG Competition fining Altice a record € 124.5m for gun-jumping, we already anticipated the Ernst & Young P/S v Konkurrenceradet judgment where, for the first time, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) provides guidance on the scope of the standstill obligation under the … Continue Reading
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