Cani Fernández

President of the Spanish Competition Authority

Cani Fernández is the President of the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (the Spanish Competition Authority) since she was appointed in June 2020.

Between 1987 and February 2020, she worked as a lawyer in private practice specialized in EU and Competition Law. She also taught those topics at prestigious Spanish and foreign universities such as Toulouse School of Economics, McGeorge University of the Pacific, Carlos III University, Autonomous University of Barcelona and Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, among others. From 1993 to 1997 she was référendaire at the Court of Justice of the European Union. She was the first woman to be appointed as a Co-Chair of the Antitrust Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA). In addition, she held the position of Vice-chair of the Economics Committee of the Antitrust Section at the American Bar Association (ABA), Officer of the International Cartel Task Force of the ABA Antitrust Section, and member of the IBA LPD Council. She was also a Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) of the EU Commission and the National Commission for Markets and Competition before the International Competition Network (ICN).

In 1986 she was awarded with the NATO Fellowship Program. Among her many distinctions awarded for her professional practice stands out her recognition as one of the 30 best specialists in Competition/Antitrust worldwide in the Best of the Best category of the Expert Guides year after year; as well as the recognition as one of the “100 Women in Antitrust Worldwide” by Global Competition Review (GCR). In 2018 and 2019 Chambers named her “Star Individual” in her specialty in Spain. She is the first woman to obtain the “Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession” award by Chambers.

Prior to that, she graduated in Law with merit from the University of Zaragoza in 1986 and has a special Degree in European Law for the Free University of Brussels in 1987, with Great Distinction.

Additionally, she is the author of numerous publications in the area of Competition and EU Law, and a regular speaker on these matters.