Nieuwe counsels bij contrast
15/03/2021

Advocatenkantoor contrast promoveert Karolien Francken en Sarah Jaques tot counsel. Beide advocaten zijn hun carrière gestart bij het kantoor en de promoties zijn een beloning voor hun jarenlange toegewijde inzet.

4th Belgian M&A Survey by contrast
30/03/2017

On 28 March contrast organized a closed event where the results of the fourth M&A Survey were presented to all participants. The fourth edition of the M&A Survey was based on 300 transactions with a total deal value of 14.7 billion euros and closed in the period 2012-2016.

contrast appoints its fourth musketeer, Herlinde Burez.
17/02/2017

contrast is pleased to announce that Herlinde Burez will strengthen its partnership. Herlinde has experience across the entire practice of contrast and in particular in business law, distribution law and competition law matters.

New book on agreements between competitors : a competition-law minefield
16/04/2015

This month, a book titled "Horizontal Agreements and Cartels in EU Competition Law" and focusing entirely on agreements and arrangements between competitors is being published by the prestigious Oxford University Press. These kinds of practices are viewed with suspicion in competition law. For the most serious violations, the so-called cartels, the fines can quickly rise into the tens and even hundreds of millions. Many Belgian companies too have already run afoul of the competition-law rules and been obliged to pay heavy fines.

The book is edited by Frank Wijckmans and Filip Tuytschaever, both of them partners in the specialised law firm contrast. 

Forum selection and choice of law clauses: they’re not just boilerplates...
01/07/2021

As a Belgian distributor, you enter into a new cooperation with an Italian supplier for the distribution of racing bicycles in Belgium. The supplier sends you a draft contract in which you read that Italian law will apply to the contract and that the courts of Milan will have jurisdiction if ever a dispute arises between the parties. That strikes you as absurd, given that the products are delivered in Belgium and are sold primarily to Belgian cycling enthusiasts. However, you do not want to be needlessly confrontational with your supplier, so you ask your legal department for advice.

GDPR in (a checklist of) 10 points? Yes, we can!
27/05/2021

The GDPR entered into force exactly 3 years ago, on 25 May 2018. Many companies began implementing the GDPR around that time, but can no longer see the forest for the trees. Other companies do not know where to start at all. And those companies which did complete the exercise at some point grow discouraged when they think about evaluating and updating the first exercise. 

Private damages actions – secure your position
01/04/2021

Due to having worked at home so much, you forget your badge when you go to the office for the first time in months. Fortunately, the security guard remembers you and lets you into the building.

Blow the whistle! New European protection for whistleblowers.
12/02/2021

You are a CEO and one day a senior employee from the financial department asks to have a private talk with you. During the conversation, the employee explains that she has a strong suspicion that her manager is engaged in fraudulent activity. She has had this suspicion for some time now, but there was nowhere she could go with it.