Saverio Valentino is a senior attorney based in the Rome office.
Mr. Valentino’s practice focuses on advising companies on a wide range of issues under European and Italian antitrust and merger control law, and on representing companies before the European Commission and the Italian Antitrust Authority (IAA), as well as before the EU courts of law and Italian civil and administrative courts.
Mr. Valentino has recently assisted: SIAE, the Italian copyright collecting society, in the successful appeal before the EU General Court against the European Commission’s decision ascertaining a concerted practice among the European copyright collecting societies; Unipol Gruppo Finanziario in obtaining the conditional clearance of the acquisition of Premafin and Fondiaria Sai, as well as in the subsequent appeal of the IAA’s decision; Esso and American Express in IAA’s cartel investigations, both resulting in the adoption of decisions finding that no infringement was committed; Google and Esso in obtaining from the IAA regulatory approval of certain undertakings, ending, respectively, abuse of dominance and cartel proceedings without a final infringement decision; Eni in the European Commission’s investigation into an alleged cartel in the paraffin wax sector, as well as in the subsequent appeal before the EU General Court; Fiat’s subsidiary Case New Holland in the European Commission’s investigation into alleged vertical restraints, which resulted in the dismissal of all charges.
Mr. Valentino’s articles include “Recent Developments in Italian Competition Law”,
First Supplement and Update of Competition Laws Outside the United States, ABA Section of Antitrust Law, 2005 (co-author).
Mr. Valentino is distinguished as a leading Competition/European Law expert by
Chambers Europe.
Mr. Valentino joined the firm in 1998 and became a senior attorney in 2007. From 1998 to 1999 he was resident in the Brussels office, and from 2000 to 2001, he was resident in the Washington office. Mr. Valentino received a J.D.,
cum laude, from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 1995, an LL.M. from the College of Europe (Bruges) in 1996, and an LL.M. from the University of Chicago Law School in 2000. Before joining Cleary Gottlieb, he worked with the law firm Freshfields in Brussels in 1996, and with the law firm Pappalardo & Associati in Brussels from 1996 to 1997. He also trained for a six-month period with the Directorate General I of the European Commission, in the unit dealing with multilateral commercial policies and WTO and OECD questions.
Mr. Valentino is a member of the Bars in New York and Rome. His native language is Italian, and he is fluent in English, French and Spanish, and proficient in Portuguese.