Bill Batchelor
Partner
BRUSSELS - European Law Centre, Belgium
+32 2 639 36 32
Bill.Batchelor@bakermckenzie.com
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Global areas of practice
Antitrust & Competition
Design, Sourcing & Manufacturing
Franchise and Distribution
International Trade
Marketing, Regulatory & Public
Protection
Sales & After Sales
Web 2.0 Services
Areas of expertise
European & Competition Law Practice
Trade & Commerce
Corporate Compliance
Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare
Languages
English
German
Baker & McKenzie CVBA/SCRL
Louizalaan 149 Avenue Louise
Eleventh Floor
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Bill specialises in EU and UK competition law. He has worked in the
Washington DC, London and Brussels’ offices of Baker & McKenzie.
Practice focus
Bill advises clients on a wide variety of competition law issues including
acting for complainants and defendants in cartel and market power
investigations, and advising on EU and multi-jurisdictional merger
control laws in relation to mergers and joint ventures. He also advises
on the impact of EU competition law and carries out compliance audits
on the franchising and distribution practices of clients in a wide range of
industries, including sports broadcasting rights, distribution and licensing
of films in various theatrical and non-theatrical segments; 3G mobile,
data networking equipment, telecommunications, travel financial
services and software sectors.
Representative clients, cases or matters
 Competition investigations and litigation - acting for complainants
and defendants in cartel and market power investigations. Recent
projects include: successfully representing KirchMedia (now Infront)
before the European Court of First Instance and Court of Justice
securing annulment of a Commission decision on exclusive
broadcasting rights under the Television without Frontiers Directive;
currently acting for FIFA in the Court of First Instance challenging UK
and Belgian laws mandating free-to-air coverage of the FIFA World
Cup; representing a well known sports rights manager in relation to a
DG Comp investigation into the sale of rights to sports properties;
representing the holder of high profile sports property in the New
Media Sector Inquiry; defending Archer Daniels Midland before the
UK and EC authorities and EC courts, securing significant reductions
in fine in respect of the Citric Acid, Lysine and Sodium Gluconate
investigations; defending a large multinational bank in the Belgian
Banks cartel investigation of the European Commission into the fixing
of currency conversion rates leading to a successful settlement;
representing a major global reinsurer in the successful settlement of
an EC cartel inquiry; securing access to interface information for a
complainant from the UK competition authorities in respect of a
dominant software vendor; successfully defending abuse of
dominance investigations by the EU authorities into a multinational
travel financial services company; securing annulment of a cartel
decision and fines in the Synthetic Rubber cartel.
 Mergers and Joint Ventures - advising on EC and multijurisdictional merger control laws in relation to mergers and joint
ventures. Recent projects include BP/Nova styrenics joint venture (for
BP), Cisco/Scientific Atlanta (for Cisco), Cisco/WebEx (for Cisco),
ADM/Pura (for ADM) and Bain/American-Standard (for American
Standard); Canal+/TVN (for Canal+); Warner Bros./Eyeworks (for
Warner Bros.) Biogen Idec/Elan Pharma (for Biogen Idec)
 Distribution - advising on the impact of EC competition law and
compliance auditing the franchising and distribution practices of
clients in a wide range of industries, including sports broadcasting
rights, distribution and licensing of films in various theatrical and nontheatrical segments; 3G mobile, data networking equipment,
telecommunications, travel financial services and software sectors.
Publications, presentations and articles
 In addition to in-house and client briefs on competition law,
commercial and gambling issues, Bill’s external publications include
contributing to Butterworths Competition Law, Cartels Chapter,
Sweet & Maxwell’s IT Encyclopaedia, Competition Law Chapter
Education and admission
 Bill graduated from Bristol University and has also studied at the
University of Hanover. Bill qualified as a solicitor (England & Wales)
in 1998.
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