Karolien Van der Putten is an associate in the Antitrust & Competition practice group of Allen & Overy, based in Brussels. She advises clients on all aspects of EU and Belgian competition law, including cartels, abuse of dominance, merger control, and state aid. Karolien has assisted clients in cartel investigations conducted by the European Commission and the Belgian Competition Authority. She has also advised clients on merger notifications, and assisted government institutions and companies in complying with state aid rules. Furthermore, Karolien has experience in representing clients before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
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Time to Prepare for A New Regulatory Hurdle for M&A Transactions and Public Procurements Within the European Union On December 23, 2022, Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 of December 14, 2022 on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (FSR) was published in the Official Journal of the (...)
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In Illumina v Commission, the General Court has confirmed the authority of the European Commission (EC) under Article 22 EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) to examine a transaction that does not have a European dimension, but which is the subject of a referral request made by a Member State – even if (...)
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On June 30, 2022, the Council of the European Union (Council) and the European Parliament (Parliament) reached a political agreement on the Regulation on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (FSR or Regulation). The FSR aims to redress the perceived regulatory gaps left by (...)
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On May 16, 2022, the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) published its long-awaited notice on enforcement priorities for 2022 (Notice). The BCA explains that, with a view to making the best use of its resources, it will focus its interventions on matters where the expected positive effect of (...)
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On March 24, 2022 the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached political agreement on the “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector” (Digital Markets Act or DMA). The political agreement comes just 15 months (...)
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To mitigate the negative economic and social consequences of Russian military aggression against Ukraine and to lessen the effect of the restrictive economic measures taken in response to the crisis, as well as retaliatory counter measures, the European Commission adopted the Temporary Crisis (...)
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On March 21 2022, the European Competition Network (ECN), the network of authorities comprising the European Commission, the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the national competition authorities of all EU Member States (NCAs), issued a joint statement on the application of competition law in (...)
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The European Commission consults Member States on its draft proposal On March 10, 2022 the European Commission (Commission) sent a draft proposal to EU Member States with the aim of establishing a State aid Temporary Crisis Framework to support the EU economy in the wake of Russia’s invasion (...)
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On March 7, 2022, changes to both the Belgian Code of Economic Law (CEL) as well as the Belgian Criminal Code (BCC) were published in the Belgian Official Gazette (Belgisch Staatsblad, Moniteur belge). The main changes include: Introducing a filing fee in notifications of concentrations (...)
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On 6 October 2021, the CJEU issued its judgment in Case C-882/19, Sumal, S.L. v Mercedes Benz Trucks España, S.L. (EU:C:1987:418), and confirmed that follow-on damages actions can be brought against subsidiaries of companies found to have infringed EU competition law. The victim of an (...)
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On September 22, 2021, the EU General Court (GC) upheld a decision from the European Commission (Commission) by which it fined telecommunications operator Altice for gun jumping (T-425/18, Altice Europe v Commission). In particular, the GC affirmed that the Commission could impose two separate (...)
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On 22 September 2021, the GCEU upheld a decision from the EC by which it fined telecommunications operator Altice for gun-jumping. In particular, the GCEU affirmed that the EC could impose two separate fines: a fine for implementing a concentration prior to its clearance, and a fine for (...)
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On 16 September 2021, the CJEU delivered its judgment on whether the Belgian system of excess profit rulings (EPRs) constituted a scheme or not. The CJEU set aside the GCEU’s judgment that annulled the EC’s decision qualifying the EPRs as an aid scheme. The CJEU referred the case back to the (...)
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On 14 July 2021, the GCEU dismissed the action brought by Nike and Converse against the EC decision to initiate a formal State aid investigation concerning certain advance tax rulings issued by the Dutch tax authorities for the benefit of Nike and Converse. Background In 2019, the EC (...)
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By decision of 20 May 2021, the EC found that Bank of America, Natixis, Nomura, RBS (now NatWest), UBS, UniCredit and WestLB (now Portigon) breached EU antitrust rules through the participation of a group of traders in a cartel on the primary and secondary markets for European Government Bonds (...)
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On 12 May 2021 the GCEU confirmed the EC’s decision of 20 June 2018 that the tax rulings which allowed the Engie group to partially escape tax in Luxembourg constituted illegal State aid within the meaning of Article 107 (1) TFEU. Background As from September 2008, the Luxembourg tax (...)
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On 25 March 2021, the CJEU dismissed all the appeals brought by Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S and five generic manufacturers against the judgments of the GCEU, thus upholding a decision of the EC on patent settlement agreements between Lundbeck and five generic manufacturers (...)
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As the incumbent telecommunications operator in Slovakia, Slovak Telekom a.s. (ST) offers broadband services on its fixed copper and fibre optic networks. ST’s networks also include the local loop, i.e., the physical lines which connect the subscriber’s telephone termination point with the (...)
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On 16 March 2021, the CJEU delivered its judgments in Cases C-562/19 P, Commission v Republic of Poland (EU:C:2021:201) and C-596/19 P, Commission v Hungary (EU:C:2021:202), ruling that the Polish tax on the retail sector and the Hungarian advertisement tax do not breach EU State aid rules. (...)
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On 4 March 2021, the CJEU rendered its judgment in Case C-362/19, European Commission v Fútbol Club Barcelona, concerning State aid arising out of the taxation of professional sports clubs in Spain. In July 2016, the EC found that Spain had unlawfully implemented aid in the form of a (...)
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On 10 February 2021, the EC concluded its first excessive pricing investigation in the healthcare sector by accepting commitments from Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd and Aspen Pharma Ireland Limited (collectively, Aspen) (Decision C (2021) 72 final in Case AT.40394, Aspen). The decision (...)
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On 14 January 2021, the CJEU delivered a preliminary ruling in which it clarified when a bid-rigging cartel offence comes to an end. This issue is particularly relevant with regard to the imposition of fines within the limitation period. Background In April 2007, Fingrid Oyj, the company (...)
