Hein Hobbelen

I am a Competition and Trade Partner at Bird & Bird in Brussels admitted to the Brussels and Amsterdam bars and I currently hold the position of Diversity and Inclusion Officer of the International Bar Association's Communications Committee.

I have more than 20 years of experience in Competition, Trade and TMT regulatory cases. My team and I assist clients in cases in these fields in front of the European Commission and other (national) competition and sector regulatory authorities. My practice spans sectors ranging from TMT and pharmaceuticals to security services, retail, paper/packaging, energy, chemicals, and many others. I co-head our integrated Brussels Competition, Trade and Public Affairs practice and the Brussels TMT sector group.

I have been recognized by clients and peers in a number of legal directories including in the areas of EU Competition, EU State aid, EU Technology and Communications and EU Trade law:

World Global Leader in Competition law - Who's Who Legal - Competition

Leading State aid Lawyer - Who's Who Legal - State aid

Legal 500 EMEA: Competition - EU and Global

Legal 500 EMEA: IT and Telecoms

Legal 500 EMEA: Media and Entertainment

Legal 500 EMEA Information technology and telecoms

Legal 500 EMEA Customs, trade, WTO and anti-dumping 2023

Juve Handbuch Brussels EU Competition and Trade law section

• Throughout my career, I have been involved in a wide variety of cases involving cartels, State aid, mergers, abuse of dominance and trade defence. I represent a number of companies in proceedings before the European Union courts in Luxembourg. I have assisted clients in more than 20 antitrust dawn raids in my career and many cartel cases including leniency. I also work at the interface of competition and TMT regulation.
• Specific to my practice is that my team supports clients with both EU competition and trade defence cases including litigation and possible PA support. I use our award-winning legal technology innovations wherever it may provide added value.
• I am regularly involved in activities in the Antitrust, Communications and Trade community. I am a Member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for a Digital Society at the Florence European University Institute and a Guest lecturer at Leuven University in the Post-Graduate Studies ICT, IP and Media Law programme. I have written a chapter entitled State Aid in the Broadband Sector for the book EU State Aid Control (Wolters Kluwer) together with former Commission official Oliver Stehmann, which is currently being updated. I am also Diversity and Inclusion Officer to the Communications Committee of the International Bar Association.

• I am currently involved in a large cartel investigation involving several competition authorities where I am lead partner. I have recently also represented clients in antitrust dawn raids. Clients also include Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, which I advise on a number of technology and communications investments; John Bean Technologies, Inc., global security services giant Securitas, Air Products, Inc., ASML, the Dutch-headquartered producer of high-tech chip machines, which is one of Europe's largest tech companies. Together with our Belgian team, I have recently been advising a large US tech platform in a Belgian case where I provided detailed EU and Belgian competition law input.
• In the field of trade law, I regularly work for companies in various industries. I have been particularly active recently in the chemicals, fibre, paper, and packaging business for companies such as Mitsubishi, Ricoh, Kanzan, Jujo, Lecta and Koehler. This includes representing these companies at the European Union courts in Luxembourg.