‘An outstanding firm for EU competition issues’, Van Bael & Bellis offers a specialised and full-service antitrust and competition practice with notable expertise in cartel and abuse of dominance cases, as well as complex European Commission merger matters. At the helm of the team, Porter Elliott and Andrzej Kmiecik are regularly involved in major EU merger reviews. Andreas Reindl is particularly recommended for antitrust investigations before the European Commission, and Johan Van Acker specialises in merger control. Jean-François Bellis is also recommended.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

'Andreas Reindl brings us up-to-date information about enforcement and practice trends, which helps us understand when we should consult EU lawyers and UK lawyers in advising clients. Andreas is very creative and sophisticated, hard-working lawyer.'
‘VBB is an outstanding firm for EU competition issues.’
‘Andreas Reindl is an absolute gem. In addition to his deep expertise in competition law, he is an outstanding service provider. He is responsive, has taken the time to truly learn our business, provides practical and easy to understand advice, and is a reassuring presence on all matters.'
'As a co-counsel, I appreciate their practical and customized approach so that we can depend on them when the clients have complicated issues.’
'Needless to say, all of them have deep understanding and wide experience about EU competition law.'
‘In depth advice, taking into consideration all issues which should be borne in mind.’
‘We constantly work with Kris Van Hove and Richard Burton. Both of them are very responsive and quick to point out the crux of the questions and requests from clients.'
'Kris Van Hove is very flexible and pleasant to work with. Richard Burton attentively listens to the clients and works to incorporate the clients' needs in his advice and achieve the best results for the clients.'

Key clients

Association for Competitive Technology
Bloomberg
Carlsberg
Gigaset
Google
Halliburton
Intel
Japan Airlines
Neste Group
Nike
Quaker Houghton
Skanska
Sopra Steria
Stora Enso
Toyoda Gosei
Umicore Group

Work highlights

Advising longstanding client Nippon Steel on its USD14.9bn acquisition of competitor US Steel.
Assisting Nuctech with the Commission’s ex officio investigation under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, in particular in its appeal before the EU General Court challenging the EC decision to initiate the dawn raid and requesting the investigation be suspended.
Assisting Intel with an appeal against the European Commission’s September 2023 decision to re-impose a EUR376m fine on Intel for a previously established abuse of dominance position in the computer chips market (for x86 central processing units).

Lawyers

Hall of Fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.