Alexandre Defossez

I. Facts Kapitol is a Belgian company. It offers European phonebooks services to its Belgian clients: they are available on both CD and DVD. In order to increase its offer, Kapitol wishes to have access to Magyar Telekom’s database in order to publish a Hungarian phonebook. Magyar Telekom is (...)

1. The Parties Spira is a ‘sightholder’(a company purchasing rough diamonds). De Beers is the world leading company in the mining and trading of diamond. De Beers UK Limited - formerly The Diamond Trading Company Limited - and Diamdel NV are part of the De Beers Group. Diamond Trading Company (...)

I. The Parties BIV is the Belgian Institute of real estate agents. This professional association regulates access to the profession and the application of deontology rules. II. The Facts In 1996, BIV drafted and published a scheme of recommended minimum rates for services provided by real (...)

I.The parties SLFB (“Syndicat des libraires Francophones de Belgique”) is a major Belgian professional association of booksellers (60% of french speaking’s booksellers are members of the SLFB). Interforum is a company active in the book distribution business. II. The facts This case put into (...)

1. The Parties The plaintiffs in this case are, on the one hand, the Flanders and Walloon HORECA (that is the Federation of Hotels, restaurant and catering professionals) and, on the other hand, several bars owners. The action is brought against Inbev Belgium plc (“Inbev”), a subsidiary of (...)

1. The parties Four plaintiffs are involved in this case. “Codenet SA” (now “Telenet SA”), “Colt Telecom SA”, “Versatel Belgium SA” (now “KPN Belgium SA”) and “WorldCom SA” (now “Verizon Belgium Luxembourg SA”) which are four companies providing telecommunications services in Belgium. The defendant is (...)

The Belgian Competition Council considers an agreement between two transport companies to be compatible with article 2 of the Belgian Competition Law I. The Parties “De Boeck Invest NV” is a holding company. It holds 99,56% of “Autocars Henri De Boeck en reizen André Leloup NV” (“De Boeck”), a (...)

The Belgian competition Council finds Belgacom guilty of margin squeeze and imposes a fine of €66,3 million. I. The Parties Belgacom S.A. is the historical operator on the Belgian telecom market and provides mobile telecom services through its 100% subsidiary Belgacom Mobile Belgium (“BMB” - (...)

Parties In this case, the Honda Company and some Belgian independent motorcycles dealers appeal a 1999 Belgian competition council decision condemning several Belgian official motorcycles importers’ abuse of dominance. Facts In the early nineties, several independent dealers complained about (...)

I. The parties This case arose from a complaint of the Superior Institute of Driving (SID) and the Belgian Consumer Association ‘Test-Achats” (TA) lodged before the Belgian Competition Council (“the Council”) against the Belgian Federation of Professional Driving Schools (BFPDS). BFPDS is a (...)

I. Parties This case arose from a complaint lodged by a retail pharmacy outlet (“the applicant”) before the Belgian Competition Council (“the Council”) Initially, the complaint targeted the Belgian Pharmacists Association (“BPA”), but the Council subsequently decided on its own motion to extend the (...)

1. Parties The present case arose from three complaints lodged in 1998 by several retail pharmacy outlets before the Belgian Competition Council (“the Council”). The complaints were directed against the Belgian Pharmacists Association as well as various local pharmacists association (...)

The Veterinarians’ Association (“VA”) is a professional order which represents all the veterinarians established in Belgium. Its primary task is to establish a code of conduct (“the code of conduct”) which regulates various aspects of the veterinarian profession in Belgium. It also holds (...)

I. Parties FEBIAC is a non-profit organisation which represents all motorcar designers, importers and suppliers in Belgium. Wallonie Expo (“WEX”) is the owner of an exhibition infrastructure. UPTR is a professional association of road transport companies. II. Facts In January 2005, FEBIAC (...)

The facts The appellant in this case is a Belgian firm whose business activities consist in distributing furniture and accessories (hereafter the “distributor”). The defendant is an Italian company specialized in the design and production of furniture (hereafter the “manufacturer”). In 1985, the (...)

Background The present case was initiated by two Dunlop tires distributors which complained about alleged anti-competitive sporting regulations on the part of a Belgian sporting organisation in the field of kart racing. The “Association Sportive Automobile Francophone” (“ASAF”) is a non-profit (...)

The Parties SA Tilleur-Liège is a company which main activity was the management of a football team (Tilleur-Liège). It went in bankruptcy in 2004. The URBSFA (Union Royale Belge des Sociétés Football Association) is responsible for the organization of football events in Belgium. It holds (...)

In Finland, pharmaceutical companies very often offer to pharmacies rebates on the wholesale price of drugs. Typically, they try to attract pharmacies by granting them generous additional rebates on all their products. As such, rebates granted by a furnisher to its distributors do not raise (...)

Ritzau Bureau I/S (hereafter “Ritzau” ) is an agency that provides extensive Danish-language news coverage - both national and international - all around the clock. The value of these services to media operators (i. e. newspaper, radio and television) is twofold. First, it provides them with an (...)

This case began in 1998 when a wholesaler, Distri-One, complained to the Competition Office of the Federal Public Service Economy (hereinafter the “Competition Office”) about the distribution practices of Coca-Cola Enterprises Belgium (hereinafter CCEB) on the basis of article 3 of the Belgian (...)

Facts In 1997, the Danish Pharmaceutical Association (“DPA”) entered into a so-called “Insolvency Agreement” with the three wholesalers of medicinal products (“the wholesalers”) active in Denmark. The agreement sought to help insolvent pharmacies - those incurring debts superior to 1 million Danish (...)

The Parties The case opposed the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SABAM) and Productions & Marketing (P&M), a company whose business activities consist of the organization of concerts and musical events. Background In 2000 and 2001, P&M organized Charles (...)

In a public procurement concerning the construction of roads in the municipality of Budapest, eight construction companies have been found guilty of bid-rigging. In a nutshell, they decided among themselves which company would get the contract by coordinating their tenders in advance during (...)

On 6 September 2005, the Hungarian Competition Authority found Magyar Telekom guilty of abuse of dominance by setting supra competitive wholesale prices for network access to “toll-free” and “reduced-toll” telephone numbers - the so called “coloured numbers”. In Hungary, “toll-free” and (...)

On 31 August 2005 the Danish Competition Council decided that Skandinavisk Motor Co. (hereinafter “SMC”), formerly Pradan Auto Import, had abused its dominant position under section 11 of The Danish Competition Act (the Danish provision similar to article 82 EC) on the original Skoda spare parts’ (...)

On 29 August 2005, the Belgian Competition Authority cleared the acquisition of a group of companies - whose identities were kept confidential - by Distripar, a company with interests in the perfume and cosmetics sectors. The parties Distripar, the buyer, is a Belgian holding company which (...)

Danish Competition Council, DBC Medier Decision, 22 June 2005 On 22 June 2005, the Danish Competition Council found DBC Medier, a company selling books, music, films and computer programmes, guilty of an abuse of dominance contrary to Article 82 EC. With exclusive rights on a large number of (...)

Dansk Reklame Film (hereinafter referred to as ““DRF”) is an intermediary between Cinemas and advertising agencies whose activities consist in entering into (i) agreements with advisers/agencies concerning the display of screen advertising in cinemas (ii) agreements with cinemas on hire of the (...)

Rába is a Hungarian vehicle manufacturers specialized in the spare parts business. The firm mostly exports products for the supply of companies such as Daimler Chrysler, Caterpillar, Suzuki etc. Rába is one of the most important independent undercarriage constructors in the world. Integris - (...)

In Hungary, the activity of notaries is the most strictly regulated branch of liberal professions. On 27 may 2005, the Gazdasági Versenyhivatal (“GVH” - the Hungarian Competition Authority) submitted a detailed recommendation during the drafting of the new regulation pertaining to notarial (...)

The facts APT-B is a Belgian company which business consisted in repairing computer hard drives. It entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with LUPAC. On 11 December 1987, APT-B unilaterally terminated the said contract on the ground of alleged contractual failures and claimed for (...)

Background The proceedings in that case were initiated by GPFI, Belga Film, Cinélibre, la Médiathèque de la Communauté française de Belgique and Super Video Production respectively copyright holder and licensees of the movie “Un homme à ma taille”. The complainants sued DGD and VRP, two companies (...)