Biography • Competition

Partner Olivier Fréget is co-head of the global antitrust group and heads the competition and EU law practice in France. Olivier has more than 20 years experience as a competition lawyer covering mergers (acquisitions and full function joint-ventures), cartels, transfer of technology agreements, abuse of dominant position (including pricing practices such as predatory pricing, tying, bundling, margin squeeze and market foreclosure behaviour) and state aid.

For more than 10 years, he has been working closely with various leading academics in the field of competition law, while advising clients on legal and economic arguments in complex cases at the border of economics and law. Olivier also lectures on EU and competition law and is a regular speaker at seminars and conferences.

Apart from his advisory work, Olivier's leading experience also includes high-profile litigation cases before the European Court of Justice and the General Court, defending clients, in particular, in the context of merger decisions and state aid. He also routinely represents clients before the EU Commission, the French Competition Authority and regulatory bodies.

He has extensive experience acting for clients in highly sensitive and complex cases involving sectoral regulatory (telecoms, pharma, energy) and intellectual property issues. From the beginning of his career, Olivier has been advising and representing new entrants in liberalised markets and has acquired renowned expertise in the sectors of network industries (energy, telecommunications, postal services), as well as in the media (TV and radio) and pharmaceutical sectors.

Olivier advises and represents clients such as Cogent, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Kiala, Odile Jacob, Poweo Direct Energy, SFR, TDF and Vivendi, among others.

Olivier is recognised as a 'leading individual' in the field in the Chambers and Legal 500 legal directories, as well as The International Who's Who of Competition Lawyers and Global Competition Review. He is described as 'well known for defending his clients vigorously', and it is also stated that, 'Clients are impressed by [his] 'overwhelming creativity' and 'remarkable drafting', while peers admire his 'intelligence and high standards.' He is noted [as being] 'most at home in the courtroom''.

Olivier has recently authored several articles in Revue Concurrences, Journal of Regulation, CPI Antitrust Chronicle and Revue Lamy de la Concurrence. In 2012 he won the academic category of the general antitrust section at the Antitrust Writing Awards for the article 'US and EU antitrust enforcement: What role in a more heavily regulated financial sector?'. Olivier is a frequent speaker at antitrust conferences and seminars.

Olivier is a member of the Association Française d'Etude de la Concurrence (AFEC) and of the Association des Avocats Pratiquant le Droit de la Concurrence (APDC).

Olivier received his postgraduate degree in private international law and in international business transactions from the University of Paris 1, Panthéon Sorbonne in 1990 and a degree in economics and international relations from ILERI in 1988. He was admitted to the Paris Bar in 1994.

Allen & Overy's antitrust team comprises over 100 specialists across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States. We advise corporates and financial institutions on their global antitrust policies, litigation and regulatory strategies and have acted on some of the highest-profile and most complex cases in recent years.

Other Practice Areas

Olivier Fréget also features in the following practice areas:

• Regulatory Communications