Commercial Contracts

Commercial contracts are at the heart of every commercial activity, from the simplest to the most refined transactions, in every type of business. Our approach is based on an accurate and thorough understanding of our clients’ businesses and needs, both in their daily activities and in business-critical situations. We provide tailor-made solutions at each stage of a project.

Olivier VANDEN BERGHE

Partner, Head of practice

T: +32 2 551 14 58
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OUR APPROACH

Commercial contracts are often associated with paperwork. We aspire to offer much more than that.

Contracts are concluded every day by thousands of commercial actors in numerous sectors. They are at the core of our clients’ activities and our commercial contracts practice is proud to be considered not only as an outstanding provider of legal services, but also as a partner in business. We share our clients’ enthusiasm about projects and are eager to collaborate with them in finding sound and pragmatic solutions from conceptualisation through closing of business deals, in a price-sensitive way.

The experience of our people, and their permanent contact not only with in-house legal counsel, but also with managers, entrepreneurs and engineers on the field, has led us to build up a natural understanding of business in numerous industries. We often anticipate needs, get deals back on track and come up with creative solutions, not only from a legal point of view but also from a perspective of risk management and economic opportunity, which is often highly appreciated by our clients.

Although we aim primarily to avoid litigation by preventing or defusing disputes, our lawyers have earned a strong track record of successful results in trials and arbitration procedures of contractual disputes.

OUR CLIENTS

Our clients include major multinational companies as well as domestic companies. Whether based in Belgium or active on the Belgian/European market, they operate in a large variety of sectors, such as oil refinery, chemicals, automotive, solar energy, construction and engineering, pharmaceuticals, retail, services, and others.

OUR TEAM

Our team is made up of over 15 lawyers who combine solid experience with in-depth knowledge of Belgian and international business law, including competition law. Our people frequently speak at conferences and seminars, publish articles on a wide range of commercial law issues and are consulted by the Belgian and European authorities when they consider introducing new contract law. Our legal rigour is only at the service of practical solutions for your business.

We offer seamless cross-practice services with our other teams such as regulatory, tax, labour and corporate.

OUR SERVICES

We assist clients in numerous sectors to determine the most appropriate business scheme, to deal with business-critical situations and to prevent or resolve disputes.

In addition to advising on standard contracts we have significant experience in creating franchising or distribution networks, industrial construction and engineering, energy supply and distribution, joint ventures and complex production and transformation contracts in key industrial sectors such as chemicals, agro-business, the food industry and mining.

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Experience Highlights
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We advise a wide range of clients who are active in numerous fields from small local enterprises to large multinational groups on drafting, reviewing and/or enforcing their contracts.

Recent work highlights include:

Assisting the main contractor with the construction of Belgium’s largest renewable offshore power plant and with disputes and financial issues related to unforeseen circumstances occurring during construction.
Providing advice to the participants in a consortium agreement for a European research project in the field of nuclear technology.
Advising clients in industries such as oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, catering, services, automotive, retail, and cosmetics on their expansion through franchising and other distribution methods or on reorienting their current distribution strategy and on related competition law issues in relation to exclusivity and retail pricing.
Assisting a major Swedish furniture manufacturer with the negotiation of construction agreements and with dealing with non-performing contractors and subcontractors jeopardizing the timely opening of stores.
Defending a major bank hit by the financial crisis in successfully dealing with the consequences of the split of the group it belonged to on pending intra-group contracts and negotiations.

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