Ricardo Zimbrón’s practice focuses on EU and UK competition law, including merger control, anticompetitive agreements, and abuse of dominance.

He brings a unique blend of experience from both the public and private sectors, having managed several international mergers and antitrust investigations.

In the public sector, from 2021 to 2024, he was Director of Mergers at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), where he managed Phase 1 and Phase 2 investigations, coordinated with international agencies, engaged in remedies discussions, and helped to develop UK merger control policy. Before this, from 2020 to 2021, he served in a similar role as Assistant Director of Mergers.

In the private sector, he has represented clients before the European Commission, the CMA (and its predecessors, the Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission); has worked with local counsel appearing before administrative agencies outside of the EU and UK; and has represented clients in litigation before the European Courts in Luxembourg and the UK High Court.

Ricardo originally joined Cleary Gottlieb in 2011 as an associate. He left Cleary to serve at the CMA from 2020 to 2024. In August of 2024, he rejoined the firm as a partner.

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Notable Experience

Competition and Markets Authority

  • Microsoft/Activision. Project Director in Phase 1, Phase 2, and during CAT proceedings in this large multijurisdictional merger relating to vertical and ecosystem concerns in console and cloud gaming services.

  • Thermo Fisher/Olink. Phase 1 clearance of multijurisdictional merger relating to the supply of technologies that can be used in proteomics discovery and analysis. 

  • Microsoft/Inflection. Transaction involving Microsoft’s hiring of certain former employees of Inflection AI and associated arrangements.

  • HPE/Juniper. Phase 1 investigation of multijurisdictional merger related to the supply of networking and IT infrastructure. 

  • SpreadEx/Sporting Index. Phase 1 investigation of merger related to the supply of online sports spread betting. 

  • Daily Mail/News Corp. Phase 1 clearance of joint venture in relation to the supply of third-party newspaper printing services.

  • Microsoft/Nuance. Phase 1 clearance of multijurisdictional merger relating to healthcare transcription services involving horizontal and conglomerate theories of harm.

  • S&P/IHSM. Phase 1 up-front buyer UIL decision in merger between providers of financial services.

  • CD&R/Morrisons. Phase 1 UIL decision using a decision rule to assess competitive impact of local overlaps in road fuel and convenience groceries.

  • Morrisons/McColls. Phase 1 fast-track to UILs merger in relation to retail supply of convenience stores.

  • Ali/Welbilt. Phase 1 fast-track to UILs merger in relation to ice machines, requiring extensive coordination on remedies with DOJ and EC.

  • Rodericks/Dental Partners. Phase 1 UIL case involving new decision rule to identify SLCs in relation to local overlaps of dental practices.

  • Admiral/Hampden. Phase 1 UIL decision using filters to identify SLCs in relation to local overlaps of pubs.

  • Boparan/Banham. Phase 1 clearance in relation to an overlap in the supply of chicken products in the UK.

  • Central England Co-op/Midcounties. Phase 1 clearance decision in relation to overlaps of funeral services.

  • Bellis/Asda. Phase 1 UIL case requiring a new decision rule to identify SLCs in relation to local overlaps in road fuel, auto-LPG, and convenience groceries.

  • Sonoco/Can Packaging. Phase 1 merger involving ‘innovation’ theory of harm and environmental parameter of competition in relation to overlap in paper can packaging.

  • LN Gaiety/MCD. Phase 2 case raising issues on evidentiary standard for foreclosure in vertical mergers.

  • Bottomline/Experian. CMA’s first Phase 1 unwinding order.

  • CareTech/Cambian. Phase 1 decision in merger of two providers of children’s homes.

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Merger Control

  • UTC on its $23 billion acquisition of Rockwell Collins

  • Ryanair Holdings in the EU merger control aspects of its bid for Aer Lingus Group, and in the subsequent minority shareholding investigation by the Competition Commission.

  • IMS Health on its $9 billion merger with Quintiles Transnational Holdings

  • Sony Corporation of America on its $2.2 billion acquisition of EMI Music Publishing

  • Euronext on the EU antitrust aspects of Deutsche Börse’s bid to acquire the London Stock Exchange 

  • Whirlpool on the $1 billion sale of its compressors business to Nidec 

  • Samsung on the sale of its printer business to HP 

  • Barclays on the sale of its Risk Analytics and Index Solutions business to Bloomberg

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Antitrust

  • Google on the EU antitrust investigation into Motorola’s enforcement of its standard essential patents against Apple 

  • Huawei in the Huawei v. ZTE referral to the CJEU to clarify specific questions related to the compulsory license defense in standard essential patents

  • DuPont in the EU Commission’s Articles 101 and 102 investigation of DuPont and Honeywell in relation to the development of a new refrigerant for air conditioning systems

  • Honeywell in relation to the development of a new refrigerant for air conditioning systems

  • Samsung on the KFTC’s investigation into Qualcomm’s licensing practices

  • HP on an OFT Market Study into Government procurement of ICT

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Pro Bono

  • Ongoing work with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) on applications to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on behalf of refugees and displaced people

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Publications

Nicholas Levy, Jackie Holland, Tihir Sarkar, Nick Rumsby, Ian Shawyer, Michael J. Preston, Gabriele Antonazzo, Nallini Puri, Michael James, Paul Gilbert, Henry Mostyn, Dan Tierney, Paul Stuart, Ricardo Zimbrón, John Messent, and Aleksandra Katolik, “UK National Security Regime: Annual Report 2024 and Observations on Recent Practice,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, September 2024.

Nicholas Levy, Paul Gilbert, Ricardo Zimbron, “UK Trends and Developments,” Chambers Merger Control 2020, August 2020. 

Nicholas Levy, Maurits Dolmans, Paul Gilbert, John Messent, Ricardo Zimbron, “UK Suspends Elements of its Antitrust Laws and Refocuses Enforcement in Response to COVID-19,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, April 2020.

Nicholas Levy, Maurits Dolmans, Paul Gilbert and Ricardo Zimbron, “CMA Ramps Up Merger Control Enforcement Ahead of Brexit,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, February 2020.

Maurits Dolmans, Ricardo Zimbrón, Jacob Turner, “Pandora’s box of online ills: We should turn to technology and market-driven solutions before imposing regulation or using competition law”, Concurrences N°3-2017 I Conference I Oxford, 22 May 2017

Maurits Dolmans, Nicholas Levy, Ricardo Zimbrón, “Modernising Abuse of Dominance – the CJEU’s Intel Judgment”, Cleary Gottlieb, October 2017

Richard Kreindler, Paul Gilbert, Ricardo Zimbrón, “Impact of Brexit on UK Competition Litigation and Arbitration”, (2016) 33 Journal of International Arbitration, Issue 7, pp. 521–540

Simon Jay, Nicholas Levy, Paul Gilbert, Ricardo Zimbrón, “Industrial Strategy Post-Brexit: The UK’s Power To Block Mergers On Public Interest Grounds”, Cleary Gottlieb, July 2016

Stephan Barthelmess, Maurits Dolmans, Ricardo Zimbrón, “Enforcing standard essential patents: the European Court of justice’s judgment in Huawei v. ZTE”, Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, XII, 2015