José María Jiménez-Laiglesia represents Spanish and international clients before Spanish and EU competition authorities in their most sophisticated antitrust matters.

He combines more than three decades’ of experience and his reputation as one of Spain’s leading competition lawyers to precisely evaluate risk and guide international companies, financial institutions, and private equity firms on:

  • Regulatory challenges to mergers and foreign direct investments
  • Cartel investigations
  • Charges of abuse of a dominant position and state aid

José Maria quickly understands the nuances involved in clients’ most complicated antitrust matters, serving as an integral hub for tightly coordinated multijurisdictional teams. He successfully intervenes in matters involving jurisdictional review of competition and regulatory decisions before Spain’s National Court (Audiencia Nacional) and Supreme Court. 

José Maria’s experience includes representing:

Mergers & Acquisitions

  • Viasat, a global satellite operator, in obtaining global antitrust and foreign investment approvals for the US$7.3 billion acquisition of Inmarsat
  • Grail, a healthcare company, in its planned US$8 billion acquisition by Illumina
  • Platinum Equity in acquiring Urbaser, a leading provider of environmental services, from China Tianying for a €3.5 billion enterprise value
  • Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) in the all-cash voluntary friendly tender offer by SIX Group, the Swiss financial markets infrastructure operator, for €2.8 billion
  • The Carlyle Group in merger control aspects related to acquiring a US$4.8 billion minority stake in Cepsa
  • KKR in acquiring distressed industrial company Grupo Gallardo and its subsequent sale to Spanish holding Cristian Lay
  • Triton Partners in securing the European Commission’s the merger clearance to acquire Fertiberia
  • Genstar Capital and its portfolio company BBB Industries in acquiring a 100% stake in M&R Precision Parts, an automotive components manufacturer, from Abac Capital

Antitrust & Competition

  • Ferrovial, before the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), in a competition case concerning a potential infringement in the construction market
  • Repsol in several antitrust matters in Spain and the EU 
  • Urbaser in a CNMC investigation into the waste management and transportation market
  • Egeda in the context of tariff setting of intellectual property rights of audiovisual producers subject to collective management
  • Logista, before the CNMC, in an investigation involving an exchange of information in Spain’s cigarette manufacturing and distribution market
  • Mastercard in competition matters before the CNMC and regulatory issues concerning payment services in Spain 
  • Santillana (PRISA) in a CNMC investigation into Spain’s publishing industry 

Bar Qualification

  • Spain (Abogado)

Education

  • Master in Laws, London College of Law, 1990
  • BA in Law, Universidad Complutense, 1989