Valérie Lefever is an associate in the competition law team of Van Bael & Bellis, one of the leading firms in EU competition law. She is a Belgian-qualified lawyer whose practice focuses on all aspects of European and Belgian competition law, as well as on European regulatory issues. Prior to joining Van Bael & Bellis in 2012, she worked in the competition practice of an international law firm and for the University of Namur as a teaching assistant and researcher in EU law, EU competition law and the regulation of electronic communications. Valérie was also a trainee at the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission. In addition to her law degree from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), she holds a Masters degree in Economic Law from the University of Brussels (ULB) and an LL.M in European Law from King’s College London. Valérie is the author of several publications in the field of EU law, including in the Law of Information Technology Review (RDTI), the Belgian Competition Review (TBM / RCB) and Getting the Deal Through Telecoms & Media.
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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. (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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, (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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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