Biography: Competition

Manuela Guia is a managing associate who has worked with D&B David si Baias since 2003. Combining Romanian and European legal knowledge she manages a large team specialising in competition (both antitrust and state aid), public procurement and transaction assistance, and advising multinational and local clients in the IT&C, R&C, pharma and automotive industries.

Manuela's expertise covers all areas of competition law, including assistance for investigations (both sector inquiries and targeted investigations), representation in front of the Competition Council, compliance advice and assistance (eg, mock dawn raids, best practice manuals, trainings, risk assessments and strategies, restructuring of business models, individual assessment of potentially anti-competitive conduct) and notifications (eg, merger notifications, vertical agreements, individual clearance). She also writes articles and has held presentations and training programmes on the subject.

Manuela led the team involved in the biggest ever competition case covering all the major players in the oil sector in Romania that was closed in December 201, imposing the largest aggregate fine ever by the Competition Council. The defence arguments helped the client in obtaining the lowest fine among all parties involved.

Manuela is currently involved in the competition investigation launched against a regional producer of doors and its distributors into an alleged price fixing.

Manuela led a project providing full-scale assistance throughout the investigation launched by the Competition Council against two major local retailers and their supplier on the Bucharest distribution market for fruits and vegetables for an alleged price fixing arrangement.

Manuela offers complete competition assistance for another major local retailer, including, without being limited to, merger control, antitrust (assistance with an ongoing investigation undertaken by the Competition Council related to a potential infringement of article 5 of the Competition Law and article 101 of TFEU by the client and its suppliers on the retail market), and competition compliance policy.

She is now conducting several commitments procedures in front of the Competition Council, as well as a number of merger notifications. She is in charge of two on-going investigations against the largest telecom operator in Romania. In addition, Manuela contributes her technical know-how to the administration of several competition litigation cases in front of Romanian courts.