DLA Piper has appointed Joost Haans as Competition partner to its Brussels office. He is currently at Baker McKenzie where he has been a partner since 2018.

Joost works in all areas of EU, Belgian and Dutch competition law, with a particular focus on merger control, investigations, distribution agreements, horizontal cooperation agreements, and abuse of dominance. His focus is on clients in the financial services, healthcare, and consumer goods sectors and he has a loyal client base consisting of major European corporates.

Joost joins an established team in the Brussels office and will help create a focal point for the provision of competition advice across Europe. It will support an already strong European platform, with a presence in our major offices in Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands and the UK, with further plans for expansion. Joost’s appointment, in line with the Competition team’s wider growth strategy, follows last year’s lateral hires of Justus Herrlinger in Germany, Marc Lager in Austria, Gábor Fejes and Zoltán Marosi in Hungary and Matt Evans in London.

Paul Hopman, International Head of Litigation and Regulatory at DLA Piper, commented: “Joost has extensive and broad experience of competition law, especially in the areas of merger control, cartels and abuse of dominance. He will be a fantastic addition to our international Competition offering and will be of great value to our clients across Europe and indeed globally. We look forward to him joining us.”

Kristof De Vulder, Country Managing Partner in Belgium, added: “Expanding our competition group in Brussels is one of DLA Piper’s top priorities and Joost’s arrival is a critical strategic part of that effort. This is just the start. We are building a global competition group that will be unrivalled and the Brussels office of DLA Piper plays a key role in that strategy.”