Europe
Brussels
Our Brussels office is one of eight European offices. In addition to being Belgium’s capital and its largest city, Brussels is the political and administrative center of the European Union (EU). Our team is multilingual, qualified in several jurisdictions, and brings together significant international experience.
Our EU regulatory and policy team assists clients in four areas of activity:
- EU and Member State competition law, including merger clearances, distribution, e-commerce, cartels, abuse of dominance, and state aid.
- International trade laws, including market access, World Trade Organization (WTO), bilateral trade agreements, trade defence instruments, export controls, and trade sanctions.
- Internal market and EU regulatory rules in several sectors, with a particular emphasis on the transport and travel sector.
- Policy and advocacy in a variety of sectors, including financial services, digital services, international trade, transportation, fashion and luxury, and other sectors.
Our team advises international clients on both current and upcoming EU legislation, including advocacy and interaction with the authorities. We regularly represent clients before the European institutions and national authorities.
Our Transactional team advises on a wide range of corporate matters, commercial transactions, banking and finance transactions, and related litigation. Our experience covers mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, and commercial contracts including distribution. On the finance side, our team advises financial institutions on acquisition and real estate finance, structured finance, security packages, and regulatory and general banking law. Our Transactional team also has extensive experience representing companies in complex national and international commercial litigation and arbitration cases. Our team advises both on domestic and cross-border transactions.
- The 2021 Chambers Global Guide recognizes the firm’s lawyers among leaders in Belgium in the area of Competition: European Law.
- The Legal 500 2021 EMEA Guide has ranked the firm among leaders in Belgium in the areas of Competition: EU and Global; Customs, Trade, WTO, and Anti-dumping; and Commercial, Corporate, and Mergers and Acquisitions.
A worldwide network of competition lawyers with deep knowledge in fashion law.
The K&L Gates team is always available and collaborative and focus on the real needs of the clients. The Partners are very well qualified lawyers, proactive and always focused on finding legal solution adapted to the clients’ needs.
K&L Gates GP's international platform allows it to successfully negotiate merger clearances from the EC, US FTC and DOJ, and competition authorities worldwide. The Brussels team is also a strong performer in antitrust investigations and litigation; Philip Torbøl has two decades of experience robustly defending clients' interests in EC investigations into cartels, abuses of dominance and state aid, among other matters. Mélanie Bruneau, who is an expert in EU and French law, handles transactional and behavioural competition matters for clients in industries such as aviation, pharmaceuticals and industrial engineering, among various others. Francesco Carloni is a well-known name among clients in the luxury and fashion industry; he is representing Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode in the EC's ongoing review of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) and vertical guideline. His wide-ranging experience also spans multiple other sectors.
At K&L Gates GP, the international trade team predominantly handles sanctions matters and market access issues, with further WTO regulatory expertise across various jurisdictions. Headed by Brussels office founding partner Philip Torbøl, the group is routinely instructed by Amadeus IT Group, and recently advised on global distribution systems concerning both China and the UAE.
Francesco Carloni has strong experience advising clients on competition compliance matters before Italian authorities, including assisting with distribution strategies.
In my opinion, K&L Gates possess a very experienced team with regards to State aid issues. Also notable are their capabilities and understanding in railway regulation which is probably a unique combination with state aid experience. I am not aware any other office able to deal so fast yet with such a good understanding and experience in these matters. They are also very flexible and able to understand what big companies need also on the formal side of the cooperation.
