Expertise

Anca has significant professional experience in competition, state aid and EU Law matters.

She is specialized and focuses her practice on competition investigations regarding cartels, abuse of dominance and other restrictive practices, competition litigation (including private damages), competition compliance in companies’ day-to-day activity, merger control, state aid and general EU law matters.

Representative Cases and Transactions

Competition/Antitrust

  • assistance of a company active in the business of production and sale of electricity meters and ancillary measuring equipment, Romanian subsidiary of a global technology company, in a bid rigging investigation
  • assistance of a media company in a price fixing and market sharing competition investigation
  • assistance of the second largest cash & carry retailer, part of a large European group, of the largest supermarket networks in Romania and of several suppliers, Romanian subsidiaries of large international groups, in the court challenge of a Competition Council decision imposing a sanction for price fixing during promotions in the food retail sector
  • assistance of the leader of the small household appliances market with the court challenge of a fine imposed for a price fixing and limitation of sales cartel in buy back campaigns performed by a waste management association
  • assistance of a provider of private maternity medical services in an investigation concerning potential anticompetitive agreements and abuse of dominance

EU Law

  • assistance with the challenge of several sanctioning decisions in relation to subsidies in agriculture, on the basis of invoking EU applicable regulations, as part of the Common Agricultural Policy
  • assistance with the challenge of a sanctioning decision imposed by the Environment Fund Administration in relation to waste oils, on the basis of invoking, among others, the free movement of goods
  • assessment of national legislation which could potentially trigger infringement proceedings

State Aid

  • state aid assessments for clients in various industry sectors, such as agriculture, aerospace, automotive, technology in terms of possibility to benefit from financing for projects under national state aid schemes (mainly concerning incentivizing investments with major impact in the economy and investments promoting regional development through jobs creation)
  • state aid assessments upon M&A projects, in terms of requirements to be observed in order to continue to benefit from state aid obtained prior to the transactions

Accolades

Included in international rankings since 2021; most recently:

  • Next Generation Partner, EU and Competition (Legal 500, 2023)
  • Rising Star, EU and Competition (Legal 500, 2022)

“Anca Diaconu showed great interest in the business needs of the company and meeting them with legal advice.”
(Legal 500, 2023)

“In addition to a thorough knowledge of the applicable regulations, she was always available for an in-depth knowledge of the client’s business.”
(Legal 500, 2022)

Education

  • University of Bucharest Law School, Law Degree
  • Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Collège Juridique Franco-Roumain d’Etudes Européennes, Law Degree (Maitrise en Droit, Droit Européen)
  • Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Masters Degree in International and European Business Law
  • Summer Course on European Antitrust Law, ERA – Academy of European Law, Trier
  • Summer School on EU Competition Law and Competition Policy & High Tech Markets, College of Europe, Brugge

Memberships and Affiliations

  • Bucharest Bar

Notable Contributions

  • moderator at the National Conference on Competition Law, organized by Universul Juridic (2023)
  • speaker at the event “New developments in competition at European level – more unpredictability on the M&A market”, organized by Juridice.ro (2023)
  • speaker at the seminar “EU Single Market – 30 years in support of the business community”, organized by the Enterprise Europe Network Centre of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Navigation and Agriculture Constanta (2023)
  • speaker at the “Competition in the current economic context – making markets work” conference, organized by the Competition Council (2023)
  • “An ‘unprecedented scope and ambition’ of the European Commission’s Competition Policy review – What’s next for businesses?” (Which Lawyer, 2021) (co-author)
  • contributor to NNDKP – COVID-19 Legal & Tax Resource Center
  • speaker at “Competition in Public Procurement – Competition Risks and Practical Remedies Conference”, organized by the Competition Council in partnership with AmCham Romania (2020)
  • speaker at the conference “Competition in Public Procurement – Competition Risks and Practical Remedies”, organized by AmCham Romania and Competition Council (2019)
  • “Romanian Competition Council announces study on the effects of sharing economy business models” (NNDKP, 2018) (co-author)
  • “CJEU guidance in merger cases: qualification of a measure as gun-jumping requires contribution to a lasting change in control of the target (CJEU preliminary ruling of 31 May 2018 in C-633/16 E&Y)” (Lexology, BizLawyer) (2018) (co-author)
  • speaker at the conference “Competition in Public Procurement – Practical Aspects”, organized by Competition Council in partnership with AmCham Romania (2018)