Johan Van Acker

Competition

Partner Johan Van Acker specialises in EU and national competition law.  His practice covers a wide range of sectors including aviation, consumer products, basic industries, steel, chemicals, electronics, information technology and real estate.

Johan is particularly experienced in merger control, and he has successfully assisted clients in numerous merger cases before the European Commission and national competition authorities. For instance, Johan has been involved in several high profile EU merger control cases, including Fincantieri/Chantiers de l’Atlantique, Energizer/Spectrum Brands, Essilor/Luxottica, Halliburton/Baker Hughes, BHP Billiton/Rio Tinto, Motorola/Vertex Standard, Boeing/Lockheed Martin, Canon/IRIS and Novartis/Chiron, to name but a few.  Johan also represented Skype in the unconditional EU approval of its acquisition by Microsoft, which received the 2011 Global Competition Review Matter of the Year award for Europe. 

He also regularly advises clients on other aspects of competition law, including cartels, horizontal and vertical agreements, abuse of dominance and state aid.  For instance, Johan was part of the Van Bael & Bellis team that handled the successful opposition to the 2010 joint production agreement between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, which received the Global Competition Review Matter of the Year award in 2010.   Johan also represented Japan Airlines in the cartel damages litigation in Europe following the European Commission’s Airfreight cartel decision.  The Airfreight litigation was given the Matter of the Year award by Global Competition Review in 2016 and also won the American Lawyer’s International Litigation award in 2016.

Johan was singled out by Global Competition Review (GCR) in its 2015 “40 under 40” feature as one of the 40 best competition lawyers worldwide under the age of 40, and one of the six best in the highly-competitive Brussels market. GCR also nominated Johan for an award in 2019 as one of the eight best competition lawyers worldwide under 40. Johan was also listed as one of the six “most highly regarded partners” in Europe in Who’s Who Legal’s “Future Leaders in Competition Law”, a peer review listing the best competition lawyers worldwide under the age of 45. Legal 500 has singled Johan out as a “Next Generation” leading EU competition lawyer in Europe. Chambers Global notes that clients describe Johan as "very bright and capable of solving difficult problems and analyses" and Who’s Who Legal cites client feedback that Johan is a “top competition expert” who “does not just provide clients with the legal analysis but will ‘think with them’ resulting in practical, relevant advice and guidance”. 

He regularly lectures and writes on competition law matters.

King’s College, London, LL.M in European Law, with merit, 2003University of Antwerp and Nice, Master of Laws, magna cum laude, 2002