About

Nicola Anemone began his career with an internship at the European Commission within the cabinet of the former competition commissioner Mario Monti, and as a business lawyer at Shearman & Sterling and De Berti & Jacchia law firm in Brussels, before moving in-house as head of legal counsel Italy for communications business Publicis Groupe in Milan. He first joined Princes in 2012 as a senior legal counsel for Italy, France and Belgium before being promoted to general counsel of Italy in April 2018. Since joining the international food and drink group, Anemone has dealt with a large range of competition, commercial and financial legal matters including WTO disputes filed by the Australian Antidumping Commission (“ADC”) between 2013 and 2018. The ADC imposed a high dumping margin on the company, resulting, according to Anemone, ‘in the reduction of its ability to compete’. Anemone succeeded in obtaining the annulment of each of the duties imposed by bringing the dispute before different international review panels, thus restoring the competitive ability of the company at the same level as that at the start of the dispute. He supports the company’s efforts in promoting ethical trading across the agricultural sector and was proactively involved – jointly with the authorities and government – in promoting an appropriate legal framework against modern slavery and gangmasters. Anemone says this has ‘enabled the company to work with 100% of its raw materials’ suppliers with ethical accreditation’. Anemone uses his experience in commercial law to define and implement the commercial and corporate aspects of key M&A operations, including the required regulatory and competition approvals as well as the execution of the transactions, Italian corporate litigation, international arbitration and WTO disputes. Following Princes’ acquisition of the Italian family-owned food company AR Industrie Alimentari, Anemone was tasked with setting up the legal, compliance and governance department pursuant to Princes’ high standards. By taking on the role of secretary of the board, member of the law decree 231 steering committee and member of the group compliance committee, he contributed to developing the legal team as a central business function in charge of advising and supporting Princes board of directors and leadership team. The key business role played by the legal department led Princes to enhance and broaden its role through the incorporation of health, safety and environment, internal audit and security affairs into the legal function.