Elena Chutrova’s practice focuses on EU and French competition law, including merger control, abuse of dominance cases, and cartel investigations.

Elena has considerable experience advising clients in  complex multijurisdictional transactions, antitrust investigations before the European Commission and French Competition Authority, and related litigation. Elena’s work has covered various sectors, notably manufacturing and industrial services, luxury goods, media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals, private equity, and sports.

Prior to joining Cleary in 2018, Elena practiced competition law at a Paris-based international law firm.

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Notable Experiences

  • Alstom before the European Commission and multiple other antitrust agencies globally in its then-proposed €15 billion combination with Siemens’ Mobility Business. The Financial Times described it as “one of the most important test cases for the European Commission,” and “setting a political precedent that could reshape the EU’s approach to contentious mergers in strategic industries for years to come.”

  • LVMH Group in its $16.2 billion acquisition of Tiffany & Co., the largest deal in the luxury industry to date.

  • Alstom before the European Commission in obtaining expeditious clearance of its acquisition of Bombardier Transportation, creating a global mobility leader with €75 billion in backlog. 

  • Allied Universal in its $5.3 billion contested acquisition of G4S plc.

  • CANAL+ in its proposed partnership with beIN SPORTS, through an exclusive distribution agreement and sublicense agreement.

  • A leading pharmaceutical company in respect of its multi-jurisdictional distribution system with wholesalers.

  • LVMH in its acquisition of a 50% stake in Jay-Z’s Ace of Spades and its acquisition of a majority stake in Off-White LLC.

  • LVMH Moët Hennessy in the creation of a JV with the Campari Group building on Campari’s stake in Tannico, an online distributor of wines and premium spirits.

  • Allied Universal in its acquisition of Attenti Group.

  • Metall Zug in the merger of its business unit wire processing (Schleuniger) into the Komax Group.

  • Several clients in non public cartel and antitrust investigations involving the EU Commission.

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Selected Activities

  • Academic advisor, Sciences Po, Paris
  • Member, L’Entente, Brussels French-speaking antitrust community

Publications

Regular contributor to Cleary Gottlieb’s European Competition Law Newsletter and French Competition Law Newsletter

“Super Bock: RPM Not Automatically a Restriction of Competition By Object,” Cleary Antitrust Watch Blog, July 26, 2023

“Commission Approves Advent’s Acquisition of GfK Subject to Divestment of GfK’s CPS Business,” Cleary Antitrust Watch Blog, July 19, 2023

“CK Telecoms (Case C-376/20): Call for Return to Orthodoxy Accepted by the Court of Justice,” Cleary Antitrust Watch Blog, July 13, 2023

“Meta: Court of Justice Confirms That Competition Authorities Can Assess GDPR Compliance In Abuse of Dominance Cases,” Cleary Antitrust Watch Blog, July 11, 2023

“European Commission Seeks Feedback on Antitrust Procedural Framework,” Cleary Antitrust Watch Blog, July 5, 2022