Belgian Competition

Belgium introduces new screening regime for foreign direct investments (FDI)

In May 2022, the European Commission adopted a new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) with accompanying guidelines, intended to take account of the specific challenges brought about by the growth of e-commerce and online platforms. We help our clients ensure that their distribution agreements are in line with the current legislation, which made some significant changes to the rules relating to dual distribution, Most Favored Nation (retail parity) clauses, and active and online sales restrictions.

Some horizontal cooperation agreements between competitors are seen as pro-competitive if they fit within the rules set out in the horizontal block exemption regulations on research and development agreements and specialization agreements (HBERs). We help our clients to understand these rules, as they are updated according to the EU’s evolving approach, e.g., to take ESG goals into account.

The 2022 Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) are EU initiatives that seek to bring EU regulation into line with the requirements of the digital age. In short, the DMA aims to promote competition by ensuring fair and contestable markets in the digital sector while the DSA is intended to harmonize the liability and accountability rules for digital service providers to make the online world safer and more reliable for EU citizens.

The DMA was born out of a sense that ex-post competition law enforcement has been ineffective in reining in the power of “Big Tech” companies. It seeks to address this problem by imposing a series of specific obligations (“do’s” and “don’ts”) on “gatekeepers” – large digital platforms that act as gateways for business users to reach end users.

We have detailed knowledge of both these Acts and advise our clients on the due diligence obligations and market requirements that they impose on online platforms.