Biography: Competition

Mauricio Velandia is a lawyer from the University Externado de Colombia. He has a specialisation in financial law from the Universidad de los Andes, as well as a specialisation in contractual law from the University Externado de Colombia, where he received a scholarship.

Mauricio Velandia is a founding partner and the current director of the firm Mauricio Velandia Lawyers, which was founded in 2001.

He is the editor of Bulletin of Arbitration and Competition, a magazine with more than 20 editions that circulates in all Latin America, and has more than 2,000 subscribers. The themes discussed relate to arbitral decisions, as well as topics that deal with competition, consumer protection and distribution canals.

He is also the director of the Responsibility and Competition Center (CEDEMERC), an academic centre dedicated to the investigation of market regulation, where frequently, via the internet, competition matters are discussed.

Within the academic field, he teaches at the University Externado de Colombia, where he has been in charged of the competition and consumer class for more than 10 years.

He has published two books about the regulation in competition, dealing with both economic and judicial matters. There is a third book being edited, Derecho de Daño a la Competencia y al Consumo (Law of Damage to Competition and Consumption). He has been a member of the editorial counsel of the Latin-American Bulletin of Competition, published in the European Union, since 2007.

In the professional area, he was head of the competition division of the state entity in charge of applying the competition and consumer rules. He was also sent by the Colombian government and the University Externado de Colombia to Mexico on a six-month secondment with the National Commission of Insurance and Guaranties. He worked as a lawyer for the Financial Superintendency, the entity in charge of financial regulation in Colombia.

Mauricio Velandia Lawyers is dedicated to act as a consultant in both commercial and civil matters, but specifically from a competition point of view. During his practice, he advised the principal economic groups in Colombia, such as the Santodomingo group, Antioqueño Syndicate, Ardila Lülle organisation and the Sarmiento group, as well as other important Colombian companies.

Concerning multinational companies, he has advised or represented companies such as BP from the UK, Telefónica from Spain, Telmex and Bimbo from Mexico, Tramontina from Brazil, PricewaterhouseCoopers from the United States, Renault from France, Chevron Texaco from the US and Bellsouth from the US.

The firm has argued against the legality of consumer protection rules, and has obtained favourable decisions.

Within the firm's practice, Mauricio Velandia has participated in several national and foreign business transactions. One of them, concerning the law of competition, was the issue of bonds for the Bavaria company in New York, through Citibank, for the value of US$500 million.

At the moment, Mauricio Velandia is included in the list of arbitrators of the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá for competition, commercial law and telecommunications specialties.

Mauricio Velandia Lawyers has offices in Bogotá and Medellín.