Dispute resolution & litigation

The firm has a strong track record in virtually all types of litigation, before all kinds of judicial and extra-judicial bodies, in all practice areas and all industries. Our attorneys have litigated landmark cases but also appear in court on an everyday basis to litigate more common disputes.

The Eubelius Dispute resolution & litigation practice group covers civil and commercial disputes, as well as employment, regulatory, tax, competition, administrative and constitutional matters and criminal cases.

Eubelius’ litigation teams consist of attorneys who are specialists in the area of dispute resolution, working side-by-side with specialists in procedural matters. To us, litigation is not just a separate practice but a skill truly integrated within each practice area. We are convinced that the combination of transactional and advisory assistance with litigation work is an asset.

Genuine involvement in litigation allows our attorneys to even better identify and avoid possible problem areas in non-litigation work. The integration of our litigation skills within all of our practice groups also allows us to pay particular attention to pre-litigation advice.

All types of proceedings and settlements

Our litigation capability covers virtually all possible types of proceedings, such as:

• Summary proceedings
• Proceedings on the merits
• Applications for cease-and-desist orders
• Ex parte proceedings
• Provisional measures and expert appraisals
• Multi-party litigation
• Seizure proceedings
• Appointment of court administrators
• Estate inventory
• Litigation relating to the enforcement of Belgian and foreign judicial decisions
• Disputes on (national and) international jurisdiction and on conflicts of law
• Annulment and enforcement of arbitral awards

Litigation in all practice areas

Examples of practice areas in which our attorneys have gained strong litigating experience include:

• General commercial and civil law
• Contracts relating to goods, real estate, and services, such as banking and insurance, construction, consultancy, distribution and other commercial cooperation agreements, outsourcing and share purchase
• Commercial practices, advertising and unfair competition
• Contractual and tort liability, including professional liability of credit institutions and financial liability of credit institutions and financial service providers, auditors, patent agents and notaries, liability of hospitals and medical professionals, liability of public authorities and their officials or liability for damage resulting from unsafe goods and events
• Constitutional law, including proceedings before the Constitutional Court concerning alleged infringement of constitutional rules on the allocation of powers and the protection of fundamental and human rights
• Administrative law, including matters of public procurement, permits granted by public authorities and violation of the principle of legality
• Intellectual property and ICT, including litigation in respect of patents, trade marks, design rights, copyright, software, use of trade marks on the internet, domain name disputes and anti-counterfeiting procedures (including Belgian saisie-contrefaçon/beslag inzake namaak)
• European and Belgian competition law
• Corporate matters, such as shareholder disputes, liability claims, forced exit scenarios, share transfers and public takeover bids
• Disciplinary matters, including proceedings for alleged breaches of professional duties against auditors, notaries, medical practitioners, brokers, attorneys, civil servants, magistrates and police officers
• Employment and pension matters, including proceedings relating to compensation in lieu of notice, dismissal for serious cause, characterisation of service contracts as employment contracts, social elections and protected workers, employee discrimination, performance of contractual obligations (non-compete, non-solicitation, confidentiality, pension obligations, etc.) and liability of pension vehicles or their directors
• Tax litigation regarding inter alia income tax, VAT, registration duties, inheritance taxes, various duties and taxes, and local taxes
• White-collar crime, such as accusations of alleged tax fraud, money laundering or insider trading
• Energy matters, including challenges to constitutional and Union law, challenges to the regulatory framework, administrative sanctions imposed by the regulatory authorities, gas tariffs, electricity prices, public procurement, operation of energy plants
• Conflicts with regard to national and international private estates, such as civil and tax conflicts arising from inheritances, donations, wills, prenuptial agreements, registered partnership contracts, trusts, foundations, etc., including all aspects of private international law

All courts and other bodies with judicial powers

Our attorneys deal with litigation before virtually all courts, including:

• EU and supranational courts, such as the EU Court of Justice, the General Court, the European Court of Human Rights and the Benelux Court
• The Constitutional Court
• Administrative courts, such as the Council of State, the Council for permits litigation and the Council for exam disputes
• All ordinary civil, commercial and labour courts
• All ordinary criminal courts, both inquiry jurisdictions and judgment jurisdictions, as well as the Court of Cassation, also including various requests addressed to the inquiring public prosecutor or investigating judge
• Competition authorities (the Competition Authority and the European Commission)
• Regulatory bodies, such as the Belgian Institute for Postal services and Telecommunications, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), federal and regional energy regulators and regional media regulators
• Tax authorities, the “ruling committee” and tax courts
• Bodies competent for (internal) administrative appeals, disciplinary authorities for various types of liberal and other professions, such as architects, auditors, notaries, medical practitioners, attorneys, brokers, magistrates, police officers and civil servants

For foreign litigation, we regularly act as an intermediary between Belgian clients and foreign attorneys who represent the clients before a foreign judge. We also provide affidavits on issues of Belgian law for foreign courts.

A large number of our partners also have extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution and arbitration before both Belgian and international arbitration bodies (including CEPANI and the ICC) as well as arbitration on an ad hoc basis.

Some of our references

• Determination of strategy and proceedings in various high-stakes contractual disputes (leases, construction and vaccines) due to COVID-19.
• Multiple cases concerning liability of banks for alleged wrongful selling of derivatives.
• Recall liability cases in various industries.
• Liability of public authorities and public enterprises.
• Arbitration cases (mainly ICC, CEPANI and ad hoc) on liability for various types of contracts such as EPCM, construction and share purchase contracts.
• Defending cease-and-desist orders relating to the operation of businesses.
• Various proceedings for interim remedies, e.g. in the telecom and entertainment sectors.
• Legal assistance in technical and damages expert appraisals (e.g. in IT and construction related litigation).
• High-profile tax litigation for various real estate companies on recharacterisation of their share deals as asset deals.
• Multidisciplinary assistance to various companies in their Belgian and EU litigation related to excess profit rulings.
• Class actions before the Council of State against, for example, local tax regulations with significant impact on business.