Faros

Faros is a Brussels based niche firm, focusing on three practice areas: competition law, data protection law and compliance.

Faros' competition team has experience with all types of procedure where competition law may be applied. It has represented companies and the European Commission before the Court of Justice and the General Court in Luxembourg. It frequently handles cases before the European Commission, the Belgian Competition Authority and the Belgian national courts.

The experience of the Faros' team spans all aspects of competition law, including cartels, abuse of dominance, all other types of restrictive practices, merger control and State aid. Faros has extensive experience with vertical agreements and practices, with partner Frank Wijckmans acting as advisor to the European Commission on the drafting of the new EU legislation (°June 2022) on vertical agreements.

Multiple examples underscore the team’s expertise. Members of the Faros team represented clients in the Commission’s “Trucks” cartel investigation, presumably one of the largest cartel investigations ever. They handled landmark cases at the European level with regard to matters such as information exchange, predatory pricing, price fixing cartels and distribution. They were active in phase 1 and 2 merger control proceedings. In the field of State aid, they successfully completed the landmark training aid case before the European Commission and challenged the legality of State aid schemes before the Court of Justice. They acted for clients before the Belgian Competition Authority in respect of hub-and-spoke cartels and abuse of dominance cases. The team handles Belgian merger control filings on a continuous basis.

Faros supports top-notch clients in a variety of sectors including retail, automotive, FMCG, media, telecom, insurance, IT and pharma.

The data protection team was one of the early adopters in this emerging field of expertise. In the dynamic landscape of data protection legislation, which encompasses much more than just GDPR, our team has consistently demonstrated a deep understanding and expertise. This (technically) complex field raises challenging questions, especially in a business environment where personal data has become a valuable asset. At Faros, our specialised knowledge and extensive experience position us as trusted advisors in this evolving legal landscape.

The experience of the team spans all aspects of data protection legislation, including advisory work in matters of strategic importance such as, the set-up of (multi-party) data sharing platforms, data breach notification assessments, access to vehicle data, the qualification of machine data, complex direct marketing set-ups, compliance with data subjects’ requests, and intra-group and international data transfers. Furthermore, Faros is active in implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) and has conducted multiple privacy and data protection compliance audits for international and national corporate groups. The team also has a particular expertise in ePrivacy law, in particular with regard to the confidentiality of machine-to-machine communications and cookies, push notifications and the implications of the proposed ePrivacy regulation for connected vehicles. The fact that Faros is viewed as one of the go-to firms for privacy and data protection is demonstrated by the team’s appointment as the data protection officer of the Flemish Bar Association.

Faros deals with all kinds of proceedings where data protection law may be applied. It assists several clients, in ongoing proceedings before the Belgian Data Protection Authority (‘DPA’) which may have significant impact on the clients’ business in case an infringement is found.

Faros supports top-notch clients in a variety of sectors including food retail, automotive, sports, fashion retail, pharma, real estate, media and consumer electronics.

A proper compliance strategy is no luxury. It is an integral part of protecting your business and being ethical about it.

By the same token, compliance programs and trainings can be boring and ineffective. The Faros team has a proven track record of avoiding those risks, both in the fields of competition law, and data protection law. Faros offers a wide range of tools to assist companies in their compliance journey:

• Trainings and workshops: The Faros compliance trainings are hands-on, interactive, and pleasant. No slide presentations with lengthy quotes from laws and cases. Rather, tailor-made challenges and attractive visuals underscoring the important messages. The trainings may cover the basics, as well as consist of specialised workshops that deep dive into topics of particular interest to the team attending the course.
• Video materials: Faros has a collection of video materials that can be used as a repeat factor for those already trained, as a tool to create awareness or be integrated in existing toolboxes and processes.
• Guidelines and policies: Faros has an archive of numerous hands-on guidelines and policies on various topics of competition law and data protection law. The Faros compliance team also drafts documents, tailored to the specific needs of a company or team.
• Audits: Faros has extensive experience in conducting audits within companies.
• Dawn raids package: Faros has developed a comprehensive dawn raids package, ranging from training to checklists and materials to support during an actual dawn raid.