Overview

Jacques Buhart focuses his practice on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and EU/French competition investigations and litigation out of Brussels and Paris. Jacques has also developed substantial knowledge of various industries, including nuclear, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, paper and energy. He is head of the Firm’s Paris and Brussels offices.

In his cross-border transactional practice, Jacques has represented, among others, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in its attempt to acquire Alstom with Siemens, Canon in its acquisition of OCE, Total in its acquisition of Elf, Belgacom, Metsäliitto in various acquisitions and divestitures in Europe, Toyota Motor Corporation in setting up its plant in France, Sonera in corporate matters in Turkey and Central Europe, TUI in acquisitions in France, Atos Origin in acquisitions of Banksys in Belgium, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and numerous other French and international public and private companies on public bids, acquisitions and sales of entire businesses and divisions, divestitures and joint-ventures.

In his competition practice, he has represented Metsäliitto in various merger notifications, including several second-phase cases, Canon/Océ, Total/Elf and TUI. On the cartel side, Jacques represented a car parts manufacturer in defense of a global cartel investigation in the European Union and the US and in various other jurisdictions, Total in the GFU gas cartel, Daiichi/ Sankyo in the vitamins case and Nippon Express in the freight forwarder case, as well as GEA and Kuhne & Nagel in French investigations.

As a litigator, Jacques has represented Cascades and Daiichi Sankyo in Luxembourg, Nokia in the US and various other jurisdictions in connection with fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) litigation and Coca-Cola in the Court of Appeal in France among other clients. He has also acted for an intervening party in the Akzo case relating to legal privilege.

Drawing on his extensive experience, Jacques provides compliance program advice to several international companies, including Metsäliitto, Alcatel, Panasonic and NGK, and is a regular speaker at seminars throughout Europe, Asia and the United States.

Jacques has been a visiting professor of EU competition law at the University of Aix-en-Provence since 1995 and has served on the faculty of law at the University of Tokyo since 2004. He has published widely on topics of EU competition rules, mergers and acquisitions. He is co-editor of Leniency Regimes published by European Lawyer, now in its fifth edition, and served as chair of the International Bar Association’s section on business law from 2001 to 2003. He is a member of the board of the Sorbonne Law School.

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