Ekram Belhadj

Ekram’s practice focuses on competition law, state aid and European law, including consumer law and unfair practices. She advises companies and trade organisations within a wide range of industries on all aspects of EU and Dutch competition law, including cartel cases, distribution and dominance issues. She has extensive experience in representing companies in dawn raids, cartel investigations, compliance and Dutch merger control including phase II (and including merging filings with the Dutch Healthcare Authority in the Health Care & Life Sciences sector). She also acted as compliance officer for one of the largest professional associations in the Netherlands in relation to a commitments decision of the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). In the area of state aid, Ekram has wide experience in notification procedures with the European Commission and advises on complex financial relations between companies and government bodies relating to for instance infrastructure (ports, rail, arenas, terminals), investment funds and energy transition.

In her fields of expertise, Ekram represents clients before the courts, both in civil and administrative cases.

Clients highlight Ekram for her "good communication skills," and add that she is "very pleasant to work with.“; “She proved to have a lot of expertise on our matter and worked with us to explore new options when we came up against some bottlenecks in our case.” They add: “She thinks in terms of solutions rather than problems.”; According to clients, “she has a lot of knowledge and is very reliable. Everything is very accurate and always on time.” (Chambers)

Ekram’s recent work includes:

Assessing antitrust compliance risks concerning a target company on behalf of an acquiring multinational

Advising companies in the feed and food sector on competition issues regarding a merger

Advising producers of technical consumer products on (cross-border) distribution agreements

Advising on subsidies and loans relating to heat distribution networks

Advising on consumer law and sustainability claims

Advising on a grant of millions, a loan and real estate transactions in the context of an area development, including the construction of a sports stadium

Advising several companies during dawn raids, interrogations and subsequent investigations by the ACM