Cesare Rizza

Cesare Rizza is counsel based in the Rome office. His practice focuses on Italian and European Union competition law, including State aid law.

Mr. Rizza appears frequently before the EU courts of law and Italian civil and administrative courts, as well as before the European Commission and the Italian Antitrust Authority. He has been a member of the Siracusa Bar since 1992 and is admitted to practice before the highest court of Italy. A native Italian speaker, he is fluent in English and French.

He joined the Brussels office in 1992 and became counsel in 2005. From 1997 to 2001 he worked at the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg as legal secretary to late Italian Judge (formerly Advocate-General) A. La Pergola. In 2007 he acted as state aid law advisor for the EC Policy Department of the Office of the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy.

He graduated from the LUISS University in 1988 and obtained an LL.M from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994.

Mr. Rizza is a former Chair and a current member of the Permanent Delegation to the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union and the EFTA Court, as well as of the Competition Committee, of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE).

Cesare regularly lectures at conferences and is widely published in legal journals.  He is the author of several publications, including: “Article 2: Burden of Proof – Commentary”, Regulation 1/2003 and EU Antitrust Enforcement: A Systematic Guide, (Dekeyser et al. eds.), Alphen aan den Rijn, 2023; “L’‘insostenibile leggerezza’ del sindacato giurisdizionale sulle decisioni di politica monetaria della BCE”, Eurojus, May 26, 2020; “Disapplication of National Law Conflicting with EU Competition Rules; the Italian Competition Authority’s Decision Making-Practice”, in J. Kokott-P. Pohlmann-R. Polley (eds.), Europäisches, Deutsches und Internationales Kartellrecht – Festschrift für Dirk Schroeder (Otto Schmidt, 2018, p. 799); “Riflessioni a supporto di una proposta ‘scandalosa’: tenere l’udienza di discussione dopo la presentazione delle conclusioni dell’avvocato generale”, in C. Amalfitano-M. Condinanzi (eds.), La Corte di giustizia dell’Unione europea oltre i Trattati (Giuffré, 2018, p. 183); “Public policies for financing the deployment of broadband and very high-speed broadband networks and EU rules on State aid control”, in B. Nascimbene (ed.), The Modernization of State Aid for Economic and Social Development (Springer, 2018, p. 237).