Competition – (Re)Act!

Competition law protects entrepreneurial freedom and regulates the functioning of markets.

• Antitrust law (e.g. non-compete clauses, exclusivity clause, cartel, abuse of dominant position, illegal exchange of information between companies, etc.);
• Unfair competition law (e.g.: poaching of personnel, denigration, misappropriation of customers, comparative advertising, etc.);
• State aid law (e.g. obtaining illegal public subsidies to launch a new activity or support the failing activity of one of your competitors).

Competition law applies to all businesses, regardless of sector, including :

• Professional organisations (e.g. professional trade unions, associations representing a sector, professional bodies, etc.);
• public companies active in the market;
• individual traders and the professions.

We provide all the services necessary to support you and turn your business around when you are faced with an anti-competitive practice:

• claim for damages for an anti-competitive practice ;
• defence or complaint before the Belgian Competition Authority or the European Commission;
• action before the Commercial Court to obtain an urgent end to anti-competitive behaviour.

Upstream, we provide the necessary legal advice to avoid your liability (e.g.: drafting of your contracts; internal regulations of professional associations; legal advice to dominant companies concerning the behaviour they cannot adopt; …).

In addition, we have developed particular expertise in two key areas of competition law enforcement, namely

• Intellectual property law (including licensing and royalty agreements, confidentiality agreements, technology transfer agreements, or settlement agreements in case of trademark disputes);
• Distribution law (including online distribution, the organisation of selective or exclusive networks, and the allocation of geographical distribution territories).

• The footer is an opportunity for us to include several useful links for our readers.
  • the FPS Economy page on unfair competition;
  • the Belgian Economic Law Code;
  • the website of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition;
  • the European Commission’s competition law portal(antitrust and state aid);
  • the website of the Belgian Competition Authority;
  • the website of the French Competition Authority.