Valérie Lefever is a senior associate in the Brussels office of Van Bael & Bellis. She is specialised in EU and Belgian competition law, with a focus on EU regulatory law. Before joining Van Bael & Bellis, Valérie worked for three years in the competition law department of a magic circle firm. She was also an assistant at the University of Namur in the fields of European law, competition law and electronic communications law. Additionally, Valérie did a traineeship in the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission (Unit E2 - antitrust - consumer goods, basic industries, agriculture and manufacturing sectors). Valérie regularly advises clients on a wide range of competition law issues, including anti- competitive agreements and concerted practices, abuse of dominance, merger control and public procurement matters. She has significant experience in distribution networks and vertical restraints. She represents clients both before the competition authorities and before the courts. Valérie has particular expertise in the energy, telecommunications and media sectors. Valérie also has extensive experience with fast moving consumer goods.
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Belgium implements ECN+ Directive and reforms competition rules On 7 March 2022, a law of 28 February 2022 reforming the Belgian competition rules (“Law”) was published in the Belgian Official Journal. This Law, which will enter into force in the coming days, will implement Directive 2019/1, (...)
616
On 2 September 2021, Advocate General (AG) Bobek delivered his opinion in case C-117/20, bpost SA v. Autorité belge de la Concurrence, on the conditions of application of the ne bis in idem principle, pursuant to which one cannot be tried or punished for an infringement for which one has already (...)
423
On 27 August 2021, the European Commission (the Commission) approved under EU State aid rules Belgium’s capacity mechanism (CM), which aims to ensure the security of electricity supply following Belgium’s decision to phase out all nuclear capacity by 2025. The approval follows the opening of an (...)
209
On 27 July 2021, the European Commission (the Commission) opened an infringement procedure against Belgium and eleven other EU Member States for failure to implement Directive (EU) 2019/633 of 17 April 2019 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural (...)
278
On 9 July 2021, the European Commission (“Commission”) published the draft revised Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (“Draft VBER”) and draft revised guidelines on vertical restraints (“Draft VGL”), a key step in the context of the revision of the current regime governing vertical agreements, set (...)
166
On 30 June 2021, the Belgian Competition Authority (Belgische Mededingingsautoriteit / Autorité belge de la Concurrence - BCA) cleared a merger between three Brussels-based hospitals: (i) Cliniques Universitaires de Bruxelles - Hôpital Erasme / Universitaire Klinieken Brussel - Erasmusziekenhuis; (...)
248
On 30 June 2021, the Markets Court (Marktenhof / Cour des marchés) of the Court of Appeal of Brussels (Hof van Beroep te Brussel / Cour d’appel de Bruxelles) suspended commitments made binding by the Belgian Competition Authority (Belgische Mededingingsautoriteit / Autorité belge de la Concurrence (...)
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On Friday 4 June 2021, the Federal Council of Ministers (Ministerraad / Conseil des Ministres) approved a draft bill that will implement Directive (EU) 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain. The bill is now being (...)
156
On 31 May 2021, the Competition College (Mededingingscollege / Collège de la concurrence) of the Belgian Competition Authority (Belgische Mededingingsautoriteit / Autorité belge de la Concurrence - BCA) unconditionally cleared the acquisition of mobile telecommunications operator Mobile Vikings (...)
230
On 26 March 2021, the Belgian Competition Authority (Belgische Mededingingsautoriteit / Autorité belge de la Concurrence - BCA) announced that its Privileged and Confidential Attorney – Client Communication Competition College (Mededingingscollege / Collège de la Concurrence) had imposed a fine of (...)
210
On 18 March 2021, the federal Chamber of Representatives adopted a bill seeking to exclude the creation of local hospital networks (locoregionaal ziekenhuisnetwerk / réseau hospitalier locorégional) and any subsequent change in their composition from the application of the Belgian merger control (...)
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On 18 March 2021, the Official Journal of the European Union published a European Commission (Commission) Notice on “tools to fight collusion in public procurement and on guidance on how to apply the related exclusion ground” (the Notice; available here). The Notice develops the tools which the (...)
219
On 10 March 2021, the Belgian Competition Authority (Belgische Mededingingsautoriteit / Autorité belge de la Concurrence - BCA) published its list of enforcement priorities for 2021 (See, website of BCA, in Dutch and in French). The document discusses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the (...)
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On 25 February 2021, the federal government submitted to the federal Chamber of Representatives a draft bill modifying the consolidated Law of 10 July 2008 regarding hospitals and other institutions of care (the Law), as regards the application of the merger control rules to clinical networking (...)
59
On 28 January 2021, the Chamber of Representatives of the federal Chamber of Representatives adopted, in plenary session, Bill 1515 of 16 September 2020 “on various provisions relating to the economy” (Wetsontwerp houdende diverse bepalingen inzake Economie / Projet de loi portant dispositions (...)
138
On 25 November 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU) delivered a judgment in case C-372/19 holding that the fee structure for music played at festivals adopted by collecting societies such as SABAM is not necessarily abusive under Article 102 TFEU. The case had come before (...)
618
In a judgment delivered on 19 November 2020, the Markets Court of the Brussels Court of Appeal (Marktenhof / Cour des marchés) (the Markets Court) annulled the decision adopted on 29 June 2020 by the Competition College (Mededingingscollege / Collège de la concurrence) of the Belgian Competition (...)
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On 19 November 2020, the Competition College (Mededingingscollege / Collège de la concurrence) of the Belgian Competition Authority (Belgische Mededingingsautoriteit / Autorité belge de la Concurrence - the BCA) imposed interim measures on the Royal Belgian Football Association (the RBFA) at the (...)
85
On 23 October 2020, the European Commission (the Commission) published a notice (the Notice) inviting interested third parties to comment on the authorisation granted by Belgium to Derby NV, a local subsidiary of the betting and gambling company Ladbrokes PLC and operating in Belgium under the (...)
244
On 7 October 2020, the Markets Court of the Brussels Court of Appeal (Marktenhof / Cour des marchés) (the Markets Court) partially annulled the decision of 26 May 2009 (the 2009 Decision), for lack of admissible evidence, by which the Belgian Competition Authority (Belgische (...)
104
On 16 October 2020, the European Commission (the Commission) published a notice (the Notice) inviting interested third parties to comment on Belgium’s proposed Capacity Mechanism (the CM). The Notice was published as part of an in-depth State aid investigation launched by the Commission on 21 (...)
171
On 3 September 2020, the Belgian Competition Authority adopted new guidelines on the method of setting fines for competition law infringements (the “Fining Guidelines”). The Fining Guidelines were published in the Belgian Official Journal on 16 September 2020 and entered into force immediately. (...)
194
On 13 December 2013, the Belgian Council of Ministers approved two draft Bills that introduce the possibility of collective redress proceedings – so-called class action claims – to recover damages suffered as a result of a breach of Belgian competition law (as well as other kinds of (...)
422
On 5 March 2013, the Brussels Court of Appeal delivered a landmark judgment finding that in-house lawyers’ communications benefit from the so-called “legal professional privilege”, i.e. they are protected by the confidentiality of communications between lawyers and their clients. The Court’s (...)
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On 9 October 2018, the Court of First Instance of the European Union (the "CFI") declared inadmissible the actions brought by three companies against four e-mails and one letter from the Commission concerning the commitments made binding in the context of the decision of 2 July 2014 authorising (...)
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On 31 August 2018, the European Commission authorised Hutchison to acquire sole control of Wind Tre, previously jointly controlled by Hutchison and VEON, on condition that Hutchison would resume compliance with the commitments that were a condition for the authorisation of the joint venture in (...)
102
On 9 July 2018, following a preliminary examination ("Phase I"), the European Commission approved the acquisition of UPC Austria by T-Mobile Austria. Both companies provide telecommunications services in Austria. UPC offers mainly fixed services (with, however, limited activities as a mobile (...)
1207
On 31 May 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the "Court") had the opportunity to clarify the scope of the standstill obligation included in Article 7(1) of Regulation 139/2004 of 20 January 2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings, i.e. the prohibition to (...)
446
On 16 May 2018, the General Court of the European Union (the "General Court") partially annulled the European Commission’s decision of 25 July 2016 rejecting the request of the German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG (hereinafter "Lufthansa") to be exempted from the tariff commitments to which it (...)
293
On April 24, 2018, the European Commission announced that it had imposed a fine of €124.5 million on the Dutch group Altice for having acquired the Portuguese telecommunications and multimedia operator PT Portugal prior to the notification of this concentration and its clearance by the European (...)
222
On October 26, 2017, the Court of First Instance of the European Union annulled a 2014 decision by which the European Commission authorized Liberty Global to acquire the Dutch cable operator Ziggo, subject to compliance with commitments. Liberty Global is an international group of cable (...)
413
In a judgment of October 26, 2017, the European Court of First Instance confirmed the European Commission’s decision of July 23, 2014 to impose a fine of €20 million on the Norwegian fish farming company Marine Harvest for having acquired the Norwegian salmon producer Morpol in December 2012 (...)
248
On 27 March 2017, following an in-depth Phase II review, the European Commission cleared the merger between the US groups Dow and DuPont, subject to compliance with commitments made by the parties. Dow is the parent company of the eponymous American group. It is active in the plastics, (...)
269
The European Commission has conditionally approved Microsoft’s acquisition of the LinkedIn professional social network. The conditions attached to this clearance were linked to the Commission’s concerns that the transaction would allow Microsoft to use the strong position of its Windows product (...)
272
The European Commission has authorised the container liner shipping company Hapag-Lloyd to acquire one of its competitors, United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), on condition that UASC withdraws from the NEU1 consortium. Consortia, or alliances, are co-operative agreements between maritime (...)
245
After an in-depth investigation, the European Commission has conditionally authorised the telecommunications companies Hutchison and VimpelCom to merge their Italian subsidiaries H3G and WIND into a single joint venture. Both Hutchison and VimpelCom are active in the retail market for mobile (...)
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