Partner

Marc Barennes

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Marc Barennes is a partner with Geradin Partners. While based in Paris, he spends a significant part of his time in Luxembourg and Brussels.

Marc benefits from a rare 360-degree vision of competition litigation and counselling as a result of his unique career.  

In the course of the past 25 years, Marc has been a European Commission official (DG COMP), a référendaire (Senior Court Advisor) with the General Court of the European Union, the executive director of a European competition claim aggregator based in Luxembourg, as well as a competition lawyer based in Paris and Brussels. In all his capacities, he has dealt with cases which set groundbreaking legal precedents and/or which involved hundreds to billions of euros stakes. 

While Marc is active in cartels, dominance cases, States Aids, FSR/FDI, he has been instrumental over the past 7 years to the quick development of funded individual and collective damages actions in France and elsewhere on behalf of thousands of companies and public entities harmed by anticompetitive or deceptive practices.

Since 2010, Marc is a Lecturer in EU litigation, global competition litigation, cartel law, State aid law, class actions and litigation funding, including with the leading School of Law in France, Sciences Po Paris. He has also been a non-governmental advisor (NGA) for the European Commission, France and Luxembourg in the International Competition Network (ICN) since 2012. He is regularly invited to write, give interviews and speak throughout Europe on EU litigation, competition litigation, class actions and litigation funding matters. 

Marc holds LLM degrees from Paris-Panthéon Sorbonne, Montpellier and Northwestern (Chicago) Universities. He is a member of the Paris and New York State bars and is admitted to act as “avocat fiduciaire” in France. He speaks fluently French and English, has a working knowledge of Italian, and his Spanish is conversational.  

  • On-going collective action on behalf of hundreds of French hotels against Booking.com
  • On-going collective action on behalf of third-party sellers against Amazon.fr
  • Co-represent entities harmed by Google in the ad-tech sector
  • On-going collective action on behalf of 90 public entities in the trucks cartel case
  • On-going collective action in France on behalf of more than 150 companies and public entities against Diesel car manufacturers involved in the Dieselgate
  • On-going collective action in France on behalf of more than 7,000 companies against the Meal Voucher issuers condemned for anticompetitive practices
  • Handled over 30 leniency applications, 8 dawn raids, RFIs and interviews in three sectors, 1 SO and one decision in 3 Commission investigations
  • Drafted or contributed to 30 rulings in the antitrust and cartel field, 30 rulings in the State Aid field, 5 rulings in the abuse of dominance field, 5 rulings in the Merger field
  • Drafted or contributed to rulings in various fields such as liability of the EU, anti-dumping, regulated sectors, anti-dumping and subsidies, trademarks
  • Drafted legal opinions about litigation funding structures and class action regimes
  • Counseling clients in various EU domains, including internal market, aviation, anti-dumping, freezing of assets

Speaking Engagements

  • Conference Geradin Partners/Mind Media (Paris) March 2026: Panelist – Options individuelles et collectives d’indemnisation en France et en Europe des éditeurs et médias français dans le secteur de la publicité en ligne et de l’intelligence artificielle
  • European Litigation Funding Circle TL4 (Chantilly, France) January 2026:  Advisory board member -Status and challenges in European litigation fundingAdvisory board member -Status and challenges in European litigation funding
  • Cartel Workshop – International Competition Network (Seoul, Korea) November 2025: Panelist – Cartels and non-competition goals
  • Brown Rudnick Litigation Funding Conference (London), October 2025 – Panelist: Litigation funding options for law firms
  • 4thoughtleaders Class Action Conference (Amsterdam), June 2025 – Panelist: Funding trends and challenges in European class actions
  • Association luxembourgeoise de droit de la concurrence (Luxembourg), June 2025 – Panelist: L’arrêt ASG2 de la CJUE – portée et limites
  • Competition Litigation Circle (Cascais), May 2025 – Co-moderator: Abuse of dominance and DMA damages claims
  • Option Finance – Rencontres de l’arbitrage et du contentieux (Paris), January 2025 – Panelist: Le financement de litiges en France
  • University of Riga (Latvia), September 2024  – Conference on EU competition private enforcement: Methodologies of quantification
  • European Class action Forum 2024, Amsterdam, June 2024 –  Conference on European Class actions: Recent developments in France
  • Competition Litigation Circle, Ascot (England), February 2024 – Member of organizing committee and panelist on recent developments in Europe and France
  • Université de Dijon, Dijon, 28/03/2024 : Les juges de l’Union européenne et le sport : sens et portée des arrêts du 21 décembre 2023
  • Brown Rudnik Conference, Londres, 15/03/2024 : The state-of play of funding in Europe
  • Sommet du droit, Paris, 30/01/2024: Les entreprises françaises doivent-elles faire appel au financement de litiges ? 
  • Global Competition Litigation Circle, Ascot; 15/01/2024: Competition private enforcement in Europe (roundtables)
  • CCA & Leaders League, Lisbon, 23/03/2023: To fund or not to fund class actions 
  • ERA, Trier, 9 December 2022: ECJ’s 2022 Case-Law in Competition Private Enforcement 
  • Croatian Competition Agency, 25th anniversary international conference, Zagreb, 28/08/2022: Regulation 1/2003 and Private enforcement
  • ERA, Trier, 08/09/2022: Litigating complex cases before the EU General Court
  • Association des Etudiants M2 Marché & Régulation de Paris Assas, 16/12/2020: Quels droits pour les concurrents de bénéficiaires d’aides d’Etat illégales?
  • International Competition Network (ICN) webinar, 9/12/2020: Antitrust litigation costs and funding options 
  • EFB/Cercle Montesquieu, Paris, 5/11/2020: Actions en réparation antitrust 
  • ERA, Trier, 17/09/2020: Litigation before the Court of Justice of the European Union 
  • Informa Conference, London, webinar, 2/07/2020: State aids and private damages
  • IEB, competition seminar, Madrid, 31/01/2020: Damage claims and the concept of undertaking
  • ICN webinar, 11/12/2019: Development of Damage Claims in the EU
  • Cercle de la Compliance/ OECD, Paris, 10/12/2019: Droit de la concurrence en 2019 : principaux développements en Europe
  • Délégation des Barreaux de France (DBF), Bruxelles, 6/12/2019: Développements en matière de droit privé européen de la concurrence
  • ERA, Brussels, 27/09/2019, Training for Belgian judges in EU competition private enforcement law
  • Northwestern University, Paris, Hotel Lutetia 24/06/2019: Private enforcement of antitrust in Europe
  • 5th Lux Competition Day Conference, Luxembourg, 11/06/2019: Compensating Luxembourgish companies for their antitrust damage
  • Paris Court of Appeals/Concurrences, Paris, 28/03/2019: Statute of Limitations in Antitrust actions
  • ICN Webinar, Cartel workshop, 15/11/2018: Leniency 
  • Croatian Bar, Luxembourg – 3/05/2018: Direct Actions before the General Court
  • NYU-HEC Legal Clinic, Paris – 14/02/2018: Amicus Curiae before the EU Courts (Barennes)
  • 5th P. Sarcevic International Conference, Opatjia (Croatia) – 7/10/2017: Antitrust and Access to Documents (Barennes)
  • Concurrences & Mayer Brown, Paris – 28/02/2017: L’administration de la preuve en droit de la concurrence 
  • UNCTAD seminar, Luxembourg – 27/10/2016: Unlimited jurisdiction before the General Court in antitrust cases 
  • European Antitrust Academy, Berlin – 22/10/2015: The Commission’s settlement practice in cartel cases 
  • Amicale des référendaires, Luxembourg – 25/09/2015: Litigation funding: 
  • Paris Bar School (EFB) annual conference, Paris – 8/07/2015: Contentieux devant les juridictions de l’UE
  • 4th Petar Sarcevic International Conference, Croatia – 9/05/2015: The Leniency and the Settlement Programs of the EU Commission
  • Revue Concurrences & Baker Botts, Brussels – 25/09/2014: Developments in EU antitrust litigation: panelist
  • EIPA, Luxembourg – 29/11/2013: Recent trends in EU Competition case law
  • Revue Concurrences & Herbert Smith, Paris – 19/09/ 2013: Recours devant le Tribunal de l’Union contre les décisions de concurrence 
  • ICN Plenary session, Warsaw – 4/05/ 2013: The relationship between antitrust authorities and courts in competition cases: 
  • ICN Working Session, Paris – 26/11/2012: Courts and competition cases
  • ICN webinar, Madrid – 18/02/2014: Courts and competition cases 
  • AMCHAM (American Chamber of Commerce), Brussels – 9/11/2011: The standard of review of the EU Courts in competition law cases
  • ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) and Baker & McKenzie, Paris – 6/05/2006: The European Commission’s fight against cartels
  • Atelier de la DGCCRF, Paris – 6/12/2005 :  Premier Bilan de l’utilisation par les autorités de concurrence de leurs nouveaux instruments

Articles & blogs