Faros

Senior partner (competition law): Frank Wijckmans

Partner (competition law): Maaike Visser

Partner (competition law): Emmelie Wijckmans

Partner (data protection law): Anouk Focquet

Partner (compliance and competition law): Karolien Francken

Number of partners: 5

Number of associates: 6

Faros is a Brussels based niche firm, focusing on three practice areas: competition law, data protection law and compliance.

The Faros competition team has experience with all types of procedure where competition law may be applied. It has represented companies and the European Commission before the Court of Justice and the General Court in Luxembourg. It handles frequently cases before the European Commission, the Belgian Competition Authority and the Belgian national courts.

The experience of the Faros team spans all aspects of competition law, including cartels, abuse of dominance, all other types of restrictive practices, merger control and State aid. Faros has extensive experience with vertical agreements and practices, with partner Frank Wijckmans who even acted as advisor to the European Commission on the drafting of the new EU legislation (°June 2022) on vertical agreements.

Multiple examples underscore the team’s expertise. Members of the Faros team represented clients in the Commission’s “Trucks” cartel investigation, presumably one of the largest cartel investigations ever. They handled landmark cases at the European level with regard to matters such as information exchange, predatory pricing, price fixing cartels and distribution. They were active in phase 1 and 2 merger control proceedings. In the field of State aid, they successfully completed the landmark training aid case before the European Commission and challenged the legality of State aid schemes before the Court of Justice. They acted for clients before the Belgian Competition Authority in respect of hub-and-spoke cartels and abuse of dominance cases. The team handles Belgian merger control filings on a continuous basis.

The Faros data protection team was among the first to pick up this new field of expertise. Not just GDPR, but data protection legislation in general has proven to be a fast moving and highly technical field of practice. Faros keeps track of the legal developments and only needs a short and targeted briefing to understand the activities of its clients.

The Faros data protection team has helped multiple corporate groups to introduce data protection compliance frameworks to adhere timely to data protection legislation. In a world where personal data have become an important economic asset for companies, data protection legislation gives rise to complex and challenging questions. The members of the Faros team are in such instances a frequently visited port of call.

Faros stands by its clients in all data protection matters, such as, storage of and access to vehicle data, complex direct marketing set-ups, data breach notification requirements, data subject requests and intra-group and international data transfers. The Faros data protection team also represents its clients during legal proceedings before the Belgian Data Protection Authority, at the design stage of new products and services and in case of data breaches.

A proper compliance strategy is no luxury. It is an integral part of protecting your business and being ethical about it.

By the same token, compliance programs and trainings can be boring and ineffective. The Faros team has a proven track record of avoiding those risks, both in the fields of competition law, and data protection law. Faros offers a wide range of tools to assist companies in their compliance journey:

• Trainings and workshops: The Faros compliance trainings are hands-on, interactive, and pleasant. No slide presentations with lengthy quotes from laws and cases. Rather, tailor-made challenges and attractive visuals underscoring the important messages. The trainings may cover the basics, as well as consist of specialised workshops that deep dive into topics of particular interest to the team attending the course.
• Video materials: Faros has a collection of video materials that can be used as a repeat factor for those already trained, as a tool to create awareness or be integrated in existing toolboxes and processes.
• Guidelines and policies: Faros has an archive of numerous hands-on guidelines and policies on various topics of competition law and data protection law. The Faros compliance team also drafts documents, tailored to the specific needs of a company or team.
• Audits: Faros has extensive experience in conducting audits within companies.
• Dawn raids package: Faros has developed a comprehensive dawn raids package, ranging from training to checklists and materials to support during an actual dawn raid.