Lefkothea is the head of our Antitrust and Competition practice and a pre-eminent expert in competition law – both domestic and EU.

She covers the full range of competition law including state aid and sector specific regulation. Lefkothea advises clients across a wide range of deals and commercial matters including privatisations, cross-border and domestic M&A and joint ventures, cartels and abuse of dominance, distribution networks, vertical agreements and restrictive practices, investigations and compliance, procedures before administrative authorities and litigation before courts. Her state aid work includes among others advising on issues regarding ports, energy, financial services, application of state aid block exemptions, and state guarantees.

Before joining the firm, she served at the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) for 15 years, including five years as a Board member (Commissioner Rapporteur). While there, she worked on many large and high-profile cases across a range of sectors. She also contributed to the design of the regulator’s policy framework and operations and promoted its place in the network of European competition authorities.

Lefkothea continues to consult on regulatory issues domestic business and industry associations, as well as in the context of competition capacity-building programmes in cooperation with international organisations.

With her long experience in this area, Lefkothea can provide extensive and in-depth expertise both on the procedural aspects and substantive application of Greek and EU competition law, as well as on the workings and policy direction of the respective regulators. This combination of practical and policy expertise gives Lambadarios a genuinely differentiated client offer in the area of antitrust and competition law.

Areas of expertise

Lefkothea has deep experience of competition law, both in Greece and across the EU. She served for 15 years with the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) and spent five years on its Board. Lefkothea was a member of the EU Council’s negotiation team for the adoption of the Directive on antitrust damages actions and of the legislative committee for the transposition of the Directive on antitrust damages actions in Greece. She was also a member of the legislative committee for the transposition in the Greek legal order of the Directive on the effective enforcement of competition rules by national Competition Authorities (ECN +), and a regular delegate-representative at the OECD and the European Competition Network.

Since leaving the HCC she has worked in private practice, focusing on EU and competition law across a range of sectors. Her practice focuses on supporting clients – both domestic and international – in identifying and addressing issues with Greek and EU competition law, regulatory compliance and structuring transactions and commercial agreements to satisfy antitrust and competition laws.

Lefkothea advises clients across a wide range of deals and commercial matters including privatisations, cross-border and domestic M&A and joint ventures, cartels and abuse of dominance, distribution networks, vertical agreements and restrictive practices, investigations and compliance, state aid, procedures before administrative authorities and litigation before courts.

She works closely with practice area and sector teams across the firm, particularly Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate, M&A, Energy, Utilities, TMT & Intellectual Property and Litigation. Lefkothea has advised on matters across a wide range of sectors including energy, construction, banking, commodities, oil & gas, consumer and retail, motor vehicles, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, ports and infrastructure, TMT, and gaming.

During her long career in competition law, Lefkothea has advised on numerous high-profile cases including:

  • Bid-rigging: HCC issued record fines of €80m to a construction cartel comprising 15 companies using its leniency programme and the recently introduced settlement procedure for the first time.
  • Abuse of dominance: A pharmaceutical company was fined over €4m for restricting supply of two drugs to Greek wholesalers.
  • Commitments: Far-reaching commitments by the Greek incumbent gas supplier to increase and support competition, including an auction system for gas and access to infrastructure obligations.
  • Phase 2 merger: HCC cleared with commitments a merger in the shipping sector.

In addition to consulting on regulatory issues Greek business and industry associations, Lefkothea also serves as a senior international expert on competition law in competition capacity-building programmes, including the EU-funded project Training of National Judges on Competition Law, under the framework of the OECD-GVH Regional Centre for Competition.

 

Notable Antitrust & Competition cases


  • Advised a Greek subsidiary of a multinational group active in home appliances, in settlement proceedings in the context of an ex-officio investigation initiated by the HCC regarding alleged infringements related to restrictive vertical agreements in the home appliances sector.
  • Advised a Chinese company, the parent company of a multinational group active in the sector of wholesale and retail markets of telecommunications and teleconferencing equipment, spare parts and software, in settlement proceedings in the context of an ex-officio investigation initiated by the HCC regarding alleged infringements related to restrictive vertical agreements.
  • Advised Greek consulting companies active in the market for the provision of cadastral survey services and support services, in settlement proceedings in the context of an ex-officio investigation initiated by the HCC regarding bid-rigging practices.
  • Advised a Greek subsidiary of a multinational group active in the agrochemicals sector, in the ex-officio investigation initiated by the HCC regarding alleged infringements related to abuse of dominance and/or restrictive vertical agreements.
  • Advised an oil products company in the ex-officio investigation initiated by the HCC regarding alleged infringements related to abuse of dominance and/or restrictive horizontal and vertical agreements.
  • Advised an IT and related service provider in the ex-officio investigation initiated by the HCC regarding alleged bid rigging practices.
  • Advised a travel agency in the ex-officio investigation initiated by the HCC regarding bid-rigging practices in the travel sector.
  • Advised a POS network provider in the investigation initiated by the HCC in the banking sector regarding alleged infringements related to restrictive agreements between competitors and/or abuse of dominance.
  • Advised an electricity and gas supplier on an ex-officio investigation launched by the HCC in the market for the retail supply of electricity to small consumers (low voltage) involving 18 companies operating in the market.

Notable Merger control cases


  • Advised TEAK CAPITAL B.V. και TANGOR CAPITAL S.A, two industrial investment portfolio companies, on the acquisition of joint control over a leading Italian glass producer.
  • Advised SwitzGroup, a multinational group active in the bakery value chain, on a merger notification for the acquisition of Ioniki Sfoliata.
  • Advised PPC (Public Power Corporation), the public electricity producer, on the acquisition of 51% of the share capital of a company active in the production of electricity.

Notable State Aid cases


  • Advised a leading group in electricity generation, building storage systems and energy trading in aid received through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for the development of renewable sources of energy.
  • Advised the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) on a number of projects.
  • Advised a leading global financial services group in a number of transactions both in the primary and secondary markets of securities.

Notable Advisory / Compliance cases


  • Advised a Greek subsidiary of a multinational group active in home appliances on the design of an antitrust compliance program and trained personnel on competition law compliance and inspections of business premises by a competition authority.
  • Advised a leading POS network provider in Greece, in the design of commercial products.
  • Advised a beer company, a subsidiary of a multinational group, in the design of its commercial policy in different segments of trade.
  • Advised a Greek subsidiary of a multinational group active in the tires market on commercial contracts from a competition law perspective and trained personnel on inspection of business premises by a competition authority.

Before specialising in competition law, Lefkothea practised for five years at the bar of Volos, focusing on civil, commercial law, penal and administrative law.

She has also served as an intern (Stagiaire) at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition and at the Athens Chamber of Commerce & Industry Bureau in Brussels.

Related News & Events

Lambadarios Partner, Lefkothea Nteka, speaks at the 8th International Competition Law & Policy Conference

16-Oct-2024

Lambadarios is top ranked once more at the Legal500 EMEA Guide

02-Apr-2024

Annual meeting of Competition Law experts

13-Oct-2023

  • Volos Bar Association
  • Greek
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • LLB National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Law, Economics and Political Sciences, Faculty of Law 1998
  • LLM (D.E.S. – Diplôme d’études spécialisées) in European commercial law, Institut d’Etudes Européennes, Université Libre de Bruxelles 1999

Lefkothea is a guest lecturer in EU Competition Law and Economics at the Université Aix – Marseille. She is also a guest lecturer in EU Competition Law at the European Law & Governance School of the European Public Law Organisation (EPLO).

Lefkothea has published and lectured extensively on the subject of competition law.

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