Van Bael & Bellis

Competition

Based in London, and with almost 15 years of experience in all aspects of competition law, Alex's practice covers predominantly UK but also EU, Greek and Cypriot competition law, focusing on complex merger control, distribution, dominance and State aid.

Alex has successfully represented a number of clients before the UK Competition and Markets Authority, the European Commission and various (non-UK) national competition authorities across the globe, as well as before the European and national courts.

Alex has also represented companies in navigating the requirements of the UK’s Foreign Direct Investment screening regime.

His practice covers a wide range of sectors, including life sciences (originators and medical device manufacturers), aviation, automotive, energy & mining, industrials, chemicals, luxury goods, telecoms, media, transport and infrastructure.  

Prior to joining Van Bael & Bellis, Alex was Of Counsel in the London office of Baker & McKenzie, and previously an associate at Van Bael & Bellis.

Alex’s extensive UK and EU experience includes:

advising Galapagos in its $5.1 billion partnership with Gilead; securing unconditional clearance of the $6bn acquisition of TDC by Macquarie; advising Bidvest before the CMA on its sale of BFS to Tesco/Booker; representing Rio Tinto on its contemplated divestment of ISAL and the divestment of its talk business to Imerys; securing CMA Phase I clearance of the acquisition of Zenith Hygiene by Diversey (a Bain Capital portfolio company); advising Three in the CMA's review of the acquisition of EE by BT (Phase II CMA review); representing Panalpina in the Freight Forwarding Investigation before the European Commission and Courts; representing Rio Tinto and Eurallumina before the EU Courts on State aid cases; advising the BBC Trust on competition and State aid implications of all aspects of the BBC's public service and commercial subsidiaries’ behaviour and business ventures, including proposals such as Open iPlayer and YouView.

Alex has been listed in Who’s Who Legal’s “Future Leaders in Competition Law” since 2017, a peer review listing the best competition lawyers worldwide under the age of 45.

Alex speaks Greek and English

England & Wales (solicitor)Greece (Athens Bar Association)Ireland

King’s College London, Post-Grad. Diploma in Economics for Competition Law, MeritColumbia Law School, New York, LL.M with US antitrust focus, Distinction/James Ken ScholarOxford University, MJur (LL.M) in European and Comparative Law, EU and UK competition law focus, European business regulationAthens Law School, LL.B - 4 year law degree (top 5%)