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James S. Venit

James S. Venit

Partner

James S. Venit

Partner

Brussels

D+32 2 552 2941

Local time

James (Jim) Venit has been practicing competition law in Brussels since 1980. He has extensive international antitrust and European competition law experience and has represented multinational companies in proceedings under the EU Merger Regulation and Articles 101 and 102 involving a wide-range of industries and economic sectors. He has handled major mergers such as Volvo/Scania, GE/Honeywell, Arcelor/Mittal and Outokumpu/Inoxum, major Commission investigations such as Intel and has been involved in landmark cases, including Lufthansa/United Alliance, GSK/Spanish Pricing, Intel and Yamaha. He also has extensive experience counseling companies on compliance matters and on the implementation of compliance programs.

Jim has written extensively on various aspects of EU competition law and was named one of the “Top 10 antitrust lawyers” from around the world by Global Counsel. He has been selected repeatedly for inclusion in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business. In addition, Mr. Venit was named a leading practitioner in his field by Who’s Who Legal: Competition Lawyers & Economists and Who’s Who Legal: Competition.

Jim received his JD from New York University School of Law 1979 and has been a partner at Dentons since 2017. He is a Belgian national fluent in English, French and German.

Experience

Recent Experience

Leading world energy company: Representing the client as the central third party intervening in the ongoing direct challenge before the General Court of the EU (Case T-616/18), where the leading Polish energy group Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA (PGNiG) is the claimant and the Commission is defendant.
Confidential client: Advising on a European-wide internal investigation, antitrust proceedings in a number of jurisdictions including UK, Germany, Poland, Hungary as well as Austria and Sweden and assisting with the re-view and implementation of a compliance program and policies including public tenders and benefits/anticorruption.
Leading world energy company: Advising the client on EU antitrust investigation of upstream gas supplies to Central and Eastern Europe.
Leading world steel company: Advising on EU merger remedies.
METI (Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry): Advising on delivery restrictions.

Recognition

Legal 500, Competition EU & Global Tier 5, Belgium (2022)
Chambers Europe & Global, Competition: EU, Senior Statespeople, Belgium (2022)
Legal 500 EMEA, Competition Tier 5, Belgium (2022)
Client says: "Very granular and personalized approach. Ability to reflect and adapt to specific circumstances to provide tailor advice rather than “off the shelf” solutions. Problem solver. Very knowledgeable and pragmatic."

In the Media

"Dentons strengthens EU Competition and Antitrust practice with top tier Partner James Venit", January 5, 2017

Insights

Co-author, "Contribution to the Stakeholder Consultation on the Review of the HBERs", February 4, 2022
Co-author, "Intel and the AEC Test", January 27, 2022
Co-author, "EU intervenes to protect competition in the European Single Market from foreign subsidies," June 23, 2020
Co-author, "What are the hot topics for the future of distribution in the European Union?", August 22, 2019
Co-author, "Newly adopted EU FDI screening and its impact on Chinese investments", April 8, 2019
Co-author, "Competition Law 4.0 - International Debate", March 28, 2018
Co-author, "The Intel Case – Facts do matter!", September 7, 2017
"What is to be done?", European Competition Law Annual, 2013
“The Intel Judgment, File Access, and Confidentiality in EU Competition Cases: Has the Time Come for Reform?”, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, 2014
“Case T-286/09 Intel v Commission—The Judgment of the General Court: All Steps Backward and No Steps Forward,” European Competition Journal, 2014
“An Effects-Based Approach to Article 102 – A Response to Wouter Wils,” 38 World Competition 1, 2015 (with Patrick Rey)
Contributed to: “Cartels and Horizontal Agreements in EU Competition Law,” Oxford University Press, 2015
“Widening the ‘Gap’ - The Substantial Lessening of the Commission’s Evidentiary Burden and the Demise of Coordinated Effects Under the SIEC Test and §§24/25 of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines,” European Competition Journal, 2015
“Making Sense of Post Danmark I and II: Keeping the Hell Fires Well Stoked and Burning,” Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, 2016