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, (...)
631
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 (...)
430
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 (...)
280
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 (...)
287
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 (...)
170
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 (...)
257
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 (...)
220
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 (...)
158
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 (...)
232
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 (...)
211
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 (...)
223
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 (...)
223
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 (...)
193
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 (...)
63
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 (...)
146
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 (...)
637
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 (...)
241
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 (...)
86
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 (...)
263
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 (...)
105
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 (...)
177
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 (...)
317
Le 9 octobre 2018, le Tribunal de l’Union européenne (le “Tribunal”) a déclaré irrecevables les recours introduits par trois entreprises contre quatre courriels et une lettre de la Commission concernant les engagements rendus obligatoires dans le cadre de la décision du 2 juillet 2014 autorisant (...)
275
Le 31 août 2018, la Commission européenne a autorisé Hutchison à acquérir le contrôle exclusif de Wind Tre, jusque-là contrôlée conjointement par Hutchison et par VEON, à condition qu’Hutchison reprenne à sa charge le respect des engagements ayant conditionné l’autorisation de créer cette entreprise (...)
109
Le 9 juillet 2018, au terme d’un examen préliminaire (de “phase I”), la Commission européenne a autorisé T-Mobile Austria à acquérir UPC Austria. Ces entreprises fournissent toutes deux des services de télécommunications en Autriche. UPC offre principalement des services fixes (avec toutefois des (...)
1245
Le 31 mai 2018, la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne (la « Cour ») a eu l’occasion de clarifier la portée de l’obligation de « standstill » incluse à l’article 7§1er du règlement n° 139/2004 du 20 janvier 2004 relatif au contrôle des concentrations entre entreprises, à savoir l’interdiction de réaliser (...)
453
Le 16 mai 2018, le Tribunal de l’Union européenne (le « Tribunal ») a partiellement annulé la décision de la Commission européenne du 25 juillet 2016 par laquelle celle-ci a rejeté la demande de la compagnie aérienne allemande Deutsche Lufthansa AG (ci-après, « Lufthansa ») d’être exemptée des (...)
296
Le 24 avril 2018, la Commission européenne a annoncé avoir infligé une amende de 124,5 millions d’euros au groupe néerlandais Altice pour avoir acquis l’opérateur de télécommunications et de multimédia portugais PT Portugal avant la notification de cette concentration et son autorisation par la (...)
231
Le 26 octobre 2017, le Tribunal de l’Union européenne a annulé une décision de 2014 par laquelle la Commission européenne autorisait Liberty Global à acquérir le câblo-opérateur néerlandais Ziggo, moyennant le respect d’engagements. Liberty Global est un groupe international de câblo-opérateurs qui (...)
429
Le Tribunal de l’Union européenne a confirmé, dans un arrêt du 26 octobre 2017, la décision prise le 23 juillet 2014 par la Commission européenne d’infliger une amende de 20 millions d’euros à la société piscicole norvégienne Marine Harvest pour avoir acquis le producteur norvégien de saumon Morpol en (...)
255
Le 27 mars 2017, au terme d’un examen approfondi de phase II, la Commission européenne a autorisé les groupes américains Dow et DuPont à fusionner, moyennant le respect des engagements pris par les parties. Dow est la société mère du groupe américain éponyme. Elle est active dans les secteurs du (...)
278
La Commission européenne a autorisé sous conditions l’acquisition par Microsoft du réseau social professionnel LinkedIn. Les conditions encadrant cette autorisation sont liées aux craintes de la Commission que cette opération permette à Microsoft d’utiliser la position forte de son produit Windows sur (...)
281
La Commission européenne a autorisé le transporteur maritime régulier par conteneurs Hapag-Lloyd à acquérir l’un de ses concurrents, United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), à la condition qu’UASC se retire du consortium NEU1. Les consortiums, ou alliances, sont des accords de coopération entre (...)
256
Au terme d’un examen approfondi, la Commission européenne a autorisé sous conditions les entreprises de télécommunications Hutchison et VimpelCom à fusionner leurs filiales italiennes H3G et WIND en une seule entreprise commune. Tant Hutchison que VimpelCom sont actives sur le marché de détail des (...)
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