Partner, Competition Law
CurrentJohan is a partner in the Brussels office, specialising in all aspects of EU and national competition law. His practice covers a wide range of sectors including, for instance, 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 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 obtaining 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 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. Most recently, Johan represents Japan Airlines in the ongoing Airfreight cartel damages litigation. The Airfreight litigation was given the Matter of the Year award by Global Competition Review in 2016.Johan was singled out by Global Competition Review 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 6 best in the highly-competitive Brussels market. Chambers Global notes that clients describe Johan as "bright, quick, very dedicated and supportive", "very bright and capable of solving difficult problems and analyses" and "a key player" at Van Bael & Bellis. Johan speaks English, Dutch and French.
