About

Privalia is a leading online fashion outlet created in 2006 in Barcelona. Currently with more than 34 million registered users around the world, it is the leader in the markets of Spain, Italy, Brazil and Mexico. The group of companies was acquired by the French ecommerce giant Vente-Privee (recently rebranded to “Veepee”) in 2016 and has consistently increased its presence in the regions it operates in, particularly in Spain, adding sister companies dedicated to logistics, audio-visual production and marketplace aggregation. Following the acquisition by Veepee, Privalia’s legal team started to provide comprehensive support to the Group’s full operations in Southern Europe and Latin America. Key to the Group’s expansion there, they take on the challenges entailed by such growth including the increasing competition and the ever-growing complexity of the business itself and the regulatory environment. Amongst the five members of the legal team working in the Barcelona office is head of legal Margarita Mïnguez, who joined in November 2017 and is in charge of projects, competition matters, M&A, compliance and labour law issues. She is supported by three legal counsels who cover day-to-day issues and certain areas of expertise. These counsels include Alejandra Salat, who also serves as data protection officer, covering data protection, IP and IT-focused agreements; Giovanni Raimondo who specialises in logistics and consumer law, and Cristina Flores, focusing on corporate and finance. The fifth member is an intern providing support on general contracting and consumer issues. In addition to the Barcelona legal team, there is one lawyer in Brazil and one lawyer in Mexico, covering the issues of their territories respectively. In the words of a nominator, ‘the team is highly regarded by the business because of their technical excellence and proactive and practical approach, acting like a true business partner by finding solutions to commercial issues’. The team has recently undertaken tough challenges such as the mergers of the Vente Privee and Privalia entities, adapting to GDPR, and is currently heavily involved in the full technical and commercial group integration undertaken by Veepee. This exercise requires the team to successfully stretch its capability to juggle both demanding day-to-day work as well as the innovative and challenging advice required for the integration of such a highly technologized business. According to Mïnguez, ‘We win as a team – this is not only one of the corporate values within the Veepee Group but also reflects how the legal team works within the organisation. We work closely with the teams in all areas to help them develop new projects and improve ongoing initiatives. By doing so we can better anticipate potential legal issues and act in a more proactive way to minimise legal risks. We believe that we are, above all, partners in the progress of the business and, as a result, we provide not only legal advice but also strategic input’. She concludes by adding, ‘Overall the team brings together exceptional technical legal skills and profound business knowledge – ensuring the provision of advice is fully customised to business needs’.