Stéphane Hautbourg is a resident partner in Gide’s Brussels office and specialises in competition law. He has considerable expertise in merger control and has been involved in several complex cases such as SNCF/Eurostar, T-Mobile UK/Orange UK, Pernod Ricard/Vin&Spirit, SEB/Moulinex, Pernod Ricard/Diageo/Seagram and TotalFina/Elf. He also regularly advises companies on the assessment of their horizontal cooperation agreements and unilateral practices. Stéphane notably advised several electro-intensive industrial companies on setting up a JV for the joint purchasing of electricity, as well as Areva in proceedings against a non-compete obligation preventing Siemens from competing following its exit from Areva NP. Working with Orange, Stéphane convinced the European Commission to reject a complaint for abuse of dominant position submitted by competitors. In the field of State aids, Stéphane has been involved in several high-profile cases, including representing Orange before the European courts in the “financial measures” case, currently one of the most important cases in the field.