


Hendrik Viaene
Hendrik Viaene is a managing partner with McDermott Will & Emery based in the firm’s Brussels office. He focuses his practice on competition law, regulated markets and regulatory law. He advises clients across a wide range of related issues including state aid, cartels, licensing agreements, merger filings, M&A negotiations, abuse of dominance cases, and distribution agreements. Hendrik assists governments as well as privately and publicly owned companies. He has a wealth of experience in a range of sector such as energy, chemicals, paints, automotive, financial data, recycling and waste management, telecom, construction, renewables, media, private equity and the financial industry. Hendrik represents companies before national competition authorities and before the European Commission in state aid, cartel, merger, and abuse of dominance investigations. He also assists governments and companies on defence strategies as well as compliance programmes to avoid fines or having to refund or recover state aid. Hendrik has successfully guided clients through first and second phase investigations in merger clearance proceedings before competition authorities across the globe. He also counsels clients on compliance audits, immunity and leniency initiatives, and general risk avoidance in relation to competition law. Hendrik has additional experience in intellectual property rights licensing initiatives specifically with regard to restrictions imposed by competition law. During his career he has represented clients in proceedings before the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, the Belgian Competition Authority, the Brussels Court of Appeals, the New Caledonian Competition Authority, the Paris Court of Appeals, and the Luxembourg Competition Authority. He acted as co-counsel for other clients for most major competition authorities worldwide, and he also audited a number of competition authorities’ operations and output as a subject matter expert.
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Articles
4776 Bulletin
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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 after (...)
495
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 (...)
202
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 the (...)
463
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 of (...)
497
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 (...)
186
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 (...)
185
The EC’s review of Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL raises two novel issues : the assertion of jurisdiction by the EC over transactions that do not meet any national or EU jurisdictional merger control tests, and the use of interim measures to stop parties closing a transaction where the EC has (...)
84
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 (...)
693
This Special Issue collects all contributions available in the e-Competitions database relating to State aid and taxation. This topic has been at the source of many a heated debate. When reviewing the existing European Commission (‘Commission’) decisional practice and the case-law of the European (...)
213
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 (...)
30
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 (...)
79
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 (...)
71
On 20 April 2021, the EC issued its settlement decision by which it fined Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Société Nationale des Chemins de fer belges/Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen (SNCB) a total of approximately EUR 48 million for participating in a cross-border customer allocation (...)
382
The European Commission wants to be able to block or conditionally approve transactions, mainly in the digital economy and in the pharmaceutical sector, even when the thresholds for notification are not met. In publishing its new Article 22 Guidance, the Commission has significantly expanded (...)
29
On 26 March 2021, the EC adopted its “Guidance on the application of the referral mechanism set out in Article 22 of the [EUMR] to certain categories of cases.” The adoption of this novel piece of guidance reflects recent concerns on the part of the EC that certain competitively significant (...)
91
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 (...)
56
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 main (...)
68
On 18 March 2021, the CJEU ruled on the appeal by Pometon SpA against the GCEU’s judgment in the steel abrasives cartel case. The CJEU ruled that the GCEU had breached the principle of equal treatment when recalculating the EC’s fine imposed on Pometon, the only non-settling party in this case. (...)
43
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 (...)
42
On 20 January 2021, the EC fined Valve Corporation and five publishers, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax, a total of EUR 7.9 million for breaching antitrust rules by partitioning the EEA market. Background Valve, together with the five publishers, restricted (...)
32
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 (...)
229
I. The facts On 15 September 1993, an exclusive motor vehicle distribution agreement was signed between Fiat Group Automobiles Belgium NV and TCI Auto Service NV, as a result of which TCI was granted the exclusive distributorship for a number of towns. Fortis Bank NV gave a first call guarantee (...)
157
BE31 [...] & Consorts/Chambre Nationale des Huissiers CONC-P/K-08/0016 Competition Council 08.12.11 I. The facts On 9 July 2008, a number of bailiffs lodged a complaint with the Belgian Competition Council claiming that the National Chamber of Bailiffs infringes Articles 2 and 3 of the (...)
119
I. The Facts The judgment of the Brussels Court of Appeal is one of a long line of decisions and court rulings taken by the European Commission, national competition authorities, the General Court and the Court of Justice concerning De Beers’ decision to alter its distribution system for rough (...)
Livres

This 5th edition of the Competition Law Digest provides readers with a synthesis of leading antitrust cases from 1990 to 2021, from the EU & Member States, the US, and other relevant (...)