Brussels

Our Brussels office, located in the administrative and regulatory hub of the European Union, is home to our European antitrust/competition and regulatory practices. Our team, comprised of attorneys from various EU Member States, advises clients from around the world on an array of EU and cross-border competition and regulatory matters.

Chambers Europe wrote that the firm's competition practice "excels at giving practical advice and understanding the client's business; and it is also well suited to work on a global scale, with an impressive US and European operation." Recent lateral partners were recognized for "excellent judgment and adept handling of the more complex cases" and "[won] praise for European and German competition law advice, particularly on high-profile mergers and international cartel matters." Our EU competition practice has been recommended by other leading ranking organizations, such as The International Who's Who of Competition Lawyers, The Legal 500, PLC Which Lawyer?, and JUVE in Germany.

In merger and acquisitions transactions, our work ranges from providing strategic antitrust advice regarding specific transaction opportunities to obtaining merger control clearances in the European Union and worldwide. We help clients in agency investigations and in front of the courts of the European Union and key Member States (such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and France). We also frequently assist clients in assessing the competition law implications of their commercial agreements, conduct, and corporate strategies as well as offer tailored competition compliance training and auditing.

Using our close relationships with leading national law firms worldwide, we offer a "one-stop shop" service to clients involved in multi-jurisdictional transactions, investigations or compliance reviews. We frequently, but not exclusively, work with members of Arnold & Porter's Competition Law Forum, an informal and non-exclusive network of leading antitrust specialists from 39 countries, covering the EU Member States as well as major antitrust jurisdictions around the world, such as Canada, China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, South Africa, or Brazil. Picked for their in-depth experience, excellent client-service and local connection, they are available to assist Arnold & Porter's clients in multijurisdictional merger filings and in local and EU cartel dawn raids, as well as to advise on other aspects of local antitrust practice.

Our experience with European law also includes free movement of goods, technical standards, chemical regulation, and general consumer protection issues. We represent clients from a broad array of industries, including pharmaceuticals, (petro-)chemicals, nuclear, steel, food, tobacco, energy, transport, media and communications, information technology, consumer electronics, automotive and general manufacturing. Combining our antitrust experience with the sector-specific experience of our US and UK colleagues, we regularly advise on the intersection of antitrust and sector-specific regulation in pharmaceuticals, food, financial services, and communications.