Francesco Carloni is a partner in the firm where he is a member of the Antitrust, Competition, and Trade Regulation practice group. Francesco has extensive experience in notifying mergers and joint ventures with the European Commission and national competition authorities in Europe, coordinating the notification of international transactions globally, and advising on all aspects of antitrust law, including vertical agreements, anti-cartel enforcement, collaborative arrangements, unilateral conduct, e-commerce, EU sector inquiries, public consultations, and state aid. He has been involved in some of the most high-profile and complex merger control cases, including in-depth (Phase 2) investigations and remedies. He offers compliance training and develops customized compliance programs adapted to clients' specific risk profiles. He has extensive experience in the fashion and luxury sector where he represents a number of the most iconic brands globally. He advises leading corporations in a variety of sectors including fashion and luxury, pharmaceutical, IT, digital maps, telecommunications, aviation, chemicals, liner shipping, food, dairy and automotive industries. A New York and Italian-qualified lawyer, Francesco graduated from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and received two LLMs from the College of Europe, Bruges, and Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Fulbright scholar. He is also the author of several articles on antitrust law–most recently, he was the author of the second antitrust survey on the luxury and fashion sectors, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice (2022)–and often participates as a speaker at conferences and seminars on European and Italian competition law.
Francesco has been repeatedly ranked by Chambers and Partners Global in European Competition Law in Belgium (foreign expert) (2016-2021 and 2024), of Francesco they say: “Clients value that he is "dedicated and available," "commercial awareness," "always at our disposal and always available for a call," “extremely focused on getting the job done as soon as possible and was able to shorten the timelines;” “not only very good from a technical point of view, but has a good network of contacts, which is important to convey advocacy initiatives.”" The Legal 500 in Competition EU and Global (2022-2023): “Francesco Carloni is an excellent lawyer, well skilled, diligent, proactive and market oriented. He is an excellent advisor focused on the clients’ needs;” “Francesco Carloni manages an excellent team of competition lawyers. He is practical, efficient, attentive and pro-active. I have always greatly enjoyed working with him and his team – they have always proven to be reliable and effective;” “Francesco Carloni is a high standing professional with a deep knowledge of the fashion sector;” “Francesco Carloni is an outstanding partner. He couples excellent professionals skills in EU competition law with a great attention to the client relationship. Francesco is nice, relatable, flexible and can tailor projects and billing to the client's expectation;” “Francesco Carloni is always a pleasure to work with. He is not only an excellent lawyer but also very business-oriented and pragmatic with a focus on getting things done.” He has also been recognized by WWL: Competition – Future Leaders in 2017-2023 (Partners category), and ranked by Milano Finanza among the best lawyers category for competition law in 2020. In 2021-2024, Francesco was nominated as a stand-out lawyer to Thomson Reuters by senior in-house counsel in large organizations. He has been shortlisted as "Luxury Partner of the Year" at Luxury Law Summit in London in 2022-2023 and named “Partner of the Year” at Luxury Law Summit in London in 2024. Francesco is the co-lead of the firm's Luxury Products and Fashion group.
