Jose Luis Buendía is the partner in charge of the Brussels office and a partner in the EU and Antitrust practice, having joined Garrigues in 2005. Previously, he spent fourteen years (1991-2005) in Brussels as a European Commission civil servant, specifically in the Legal Service (on the State Aid team), the Directorates-General for Competition and the Internal Market and in the Cabinet of Commissioner Marcelino Oreja.
Jose Luis is a renowned expert in EU and antitrust law, with a particular focus on State aid and other public measures affecting competition, and in handling appeals before the EU courts.
His wealth of experience in these areas has made Jose Luis the lawyer of choice for many Spanish and international public and private companies. He regularly acts in many of the most high-profile antitrust and State aid-related proceedings, both before the European Commission and the EU courts.
His professional practice also covers issues relating to cartels, agreements between undertakings, abuse of dominant position, structural funds, free movement of goods, public procurement, tax rules and trade defense proceedings. He also has broad expertise in sectors such as finance, energy, pharmaceutical distribution, telecommunications, public services, audiovisual production, steel, sports and transport.
Legal directories such as Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, Legal 500, IFLR 1000 and Global Competition Review have singled Jose Luis out for praise as a notable competition law expert, pointing in particular to his “magnificent” work in the field of State aid, as well as his communication skills.
Jose Luis is also very active on the academic front. He has been a visiting lecturer in State aid law at King’s College London since 2009 and coordinates the State aid modules on the competition law courses at Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles de Madrid. Prior to this, he was a visiting lecturer in competition law at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2003-2010) and assistant lecturer on corporate/commercial law at the University of Zaragoza (1988-1991). He regularly participates in international conferences and specialist seminars on antitrust and EU law and has co-edited the European State Aid Law Quarterly (EStAL) since 2015.
Jose Luis is a Member of the Zaragoza and Brussels Bar Associations. He currently sits on the Executive Board of the Spanish Association for European Legal Studies.
He has been a member of the Aragon Antitrust Tribunal since 2017.
Ph.D. in Law (1998), with special award for Ph.D. (1999), and Degree in Law (1987) from the University of Zaragoza.
Visiting Researcher, Real Colegio Complutense and Harvard Law School, Cambridge, USA (1996).
Master’s Degree in European Legal Studies from College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium (1991).
Jose Luis is the author of one of the core texts on public intervention in competition matters: Exclusive Rights and State Monopolies under EC Law, Oxford University Press, 450 pp, 2000, Oxford. A second edition is currently being prepared. He has also co-published Milestones in State Aid Law – EstAL’s first 15 Years in Perspective, 767 pp. 2017, Lexxion.
Moreover, Jose Luis regularly contributes articles to the leading publications on international competition law. His publications notably include:
• Bolsa, Miguel Ángel and Buendía, José Luis, “Spain”. Leigh Hancher, Adrien de Hauteclocque, Francesco Maria Salerno (eds.). State Aid and the Energy Sector. Oxford: Hart, 2018. p. 491-513.
• Bolsa, Miguel Ángel and Buendía, José Luis, “What National Courts Can Do and What they Must Do”. EStAL, 3 (2017): p. 408-417.
• Buendía, José Luis and Givaja, Ángel, “Special and exclusive rights, public services and services of general economic interest” (*). José María Beneyto and Jerónimo Maillo (eds.). “Competition Law Treaty” (*) (2nd ed.). Madrid: Bosch, 2017.
• Buendía, José Luis and Buts, Caroline, “Finding Selectivity or the Art of Comparison”. José Luis Buendía and Caroline Buts (eds.). Milestones in State Aid Law. Berlin: EStAL - Lexxion, 2017. p. 410-422.
• Buendía, José Luis, “Enforcement of Article 106(1) TFEU by the European Commission and the EU Courts”. Philip Lowe, Mel Marquis and Giorgio Monti (eds.). European Competition Law Annual 2013, Effective and Legitimate Enforcement of Competition Law. Oxford: Hart, 2016. p. 279-306.
• Buendía, José Luis and Panero, José Manuel, “Energy & State Aid: An overview of EU and national case law”. e-Competitions, no. 70678 (2015).
• Buendía, José Luis, “Article 106 - Exclusive Rights and other anti-competitive State measures”. Jonathan Faull & Ali Nikpay (eds.). The EC Law of competition (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapter 6.
• Buendía, José Luis, “Public Undertakings and Exclusive or Special Rights”. Luis Ortiz Blanco (ed.). EC Competition Procedure, III, (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
• Buendía, José Luis and Panero, José Manuel, “The Almunia package: State aid and Services of General Economic Interest”. Erika Szyszczak & Johan Willem van de Gronden (eds.) Financing Services of General Economic Interest. The Hague: TMC Asser Press, 2013. Chapter 7.
• Buendía, José Luis, Muñoz, María and Visser Matthijs, “Public intervention in the economy in times of crisis”. Jacques Derenne, Massimo Merola and José Rivas (eds.). Competition Law in times of Economic Crisis - In Need of Adjustment?. GCLC Annual Conference series, 4. Brussels: Bruylant, 2013. p. 415-425.
• Buendía, José Luis, “Writing Straight with Crooked Lines: Competition Policy and Services of General Economic Interest in the Treaty of Lisbon”. Andrea Biondi (ed.). EU Law After Lisbon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 347-366.
• Buendía, José Luis and Muñoz, María, “Some legal reflections on the Almunia package”. EStAL, 2 (2012). p. 63-81.
• Buendía, José Luis, “Exclusive or special rights under Art. 106 TFEU: An overview of EU and national case law”. e-Competitions, no. 44436 (2012).
• Buendía, José Luis, “Finding the Right Balance: State Aid and Services of General Economic Interest”, in EC State Aid Law: Liber Amicorum Francisco Santaolalla. Kluwer Law International, 2008. Chapter 10.
• Buendía, José Luis and Smulders, Ben, “The Limited Role of the “Refined Economic Approach” in “Achieving the Objectives of State Aid Control: Time for Some Realism”. EC State Aid Law: Liber Amicorum Francisco Santaolalla. Kluwer Law International, 2008. Chapter 1.
• Cabrera, Susana and Buendía, José Luis, “State Aid Control and the new Competition Law” (*). Antonio Creus (ed.) La Ley 15/2007 de Defensa de la Competencia. Revista de Derecho de la Competencia y la Distribución, 1 (2008). p. 279-288.
• Buendía, José Luis, “Spanish Report on State aid enforcement”. Paul Nemitz (ed.) The Effective Application of EU State Aid Procedures. Kluwer Law International, 2007. p. 355-377.
• Buendía, José Luis and Hancher, Leigh, “Cross-subsidization and EC Law. Common Market Law Review, 35 (1998). p. 901-945.
• Buendía, José Luis, “La Communication sur les services d’intérêt général en Europe et la politique communautaire de concurrence”. Robert Kovar and Denys Simon (eds.). Service public et Communauté européenne: entre l'intérêt général et le marché, Actes du colloque de Strasbourg, 17-19 octobre 1996. Paris: La Documentation Française, Volume II, 1998. p. 461-473.
• Buendía, José Luis, “Fallout from the Cassis de Dijon case” (*). Madrid: Revista de Instituciones Europeas, vol. 16, no. 1, (1989). p. 135-171.
(*) Originally published in Spanish. See Spanish CV for further details.
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