Award  |  11/15/2017

Elena Messina Prize for Niccolò Galli

Niccolò Galli, doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, has been awarded the Elena Messina Prize by the Elena Messina Association for his dissertation “Standard essential patents litigation and abuse of a dominant position – The FRAND defense in the EU competition law context”.

Niccolo Galli erhält Elena Messina-Preis von  Filippo Alberti (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer)
Niccolò Galli (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition), Filippo Alberti (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer). Photo: Dr. Luca Biffaro (Italian Antitrust Authority)

The prize, endowed with EUR 1,000, is conferred annually by a scientific committee composed of five prominent Italian antitrust professionals, three officers and two lawyers, for the best dissertation in the area of competition and consumer law.


The award is just one of the initiatives of the association, all of which are devoted to promoting excellence in antitrust education and practice in the memory of Elena Messina. Messina, a young and promising lawyer who graduated summa cum laude from LUISS University with a dissertation on efficiency and consumer welfare in EU and US anti-monopoly laws, died in 2012 in a road accident. She was working for the Italian Antitrust Authority at the time.


Galli was presented with the prize by the Vice President of the Association, Filippo Alberti, on 28 September 2017 at the seat of the Antitrust Authority in Rome during the conference “Competition issues related to the freedom to connect”.