People
Dirk Arts
Biography
Dirk specialises in Belgian and EU competition law as well as general EU law.
He advises and assists clients in administrative and judicial procedures, both before national and European authorities and courts. Dirk has particular experience within the energy, media, chemical, retail and automobile sectors. He represents clients in cartel investigations conducted by both the Commission as well as the Belgian competition authority, and advises on merger control cases.
Dirk is a member of the editorial board of Competition and a founding member of the Belgian Association of Competition Lawyers.
Dirk has worked as a research assistant at the Institute for European Law of the KULeuven before serving as a Référendaire (legal secretary) in the General Court. He teaches Judicial Protection in the EU at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Dirk has been identified by Global Competition Review’s independent research with clients and peers as being among the world’s leading competition lawyers.
Practice areas
- Antitrust litigation
- Antitrust
- Corporate and M&A
- Disputes
- White-collar defense and global investigations
Sectors
- Automotive
- Consumer and retail
- Power
- Life sciences and healthcare
- Technology
- Retail
Selected experience
- Several financial institutions in their defence in Cartel investigations of the European Commission.
- Scania on the European Commission heavy trucks investigation and in follow-on private damages claims across the EEA.
- The merger control aspects of the creation of Mediahuis NV, the largest newspaper publisher in Belgium.
Education
- Law Degree, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), 1988
- LLM, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1990
Admissions
- Stagiair, Belgium, 1997
- Admitted as advocaat, Belgium, 2001
- Registered Foreign Lawyer, England and Wales, 2021
Languages
- Dutch
- English
- French