Johan Ysewyn

Johan Ysewyn advises on all aspects of EC, international and Belgian antitrust law, including merger control, compliance, cartel and leniency issues and abuse of dominance cases. He acts as the head of the firm’s EU Competition group.

Firm/Organization: Covington & Burling LLP

Blogs: Cov Financial Services, Covington Competition, Global Policy Watch, Inside EU Life Sciences

Latest Articles

Covington Competition

The GC’s rulings in Fiat and Starbucks : a green light with a warning

By Johan Ysewyn, Sophie Bertin & Geoffrey Kalantari

October 22, 2019

On 24 September 219, the General Court (“GC”) delivered its long awaited judgments on the European Commission’s (“Commission”) decisions finding that tax rulings granted to Starbucks and Fiat constituted State aid. The GC annulled the Commission’s decision on Starbucks but upheld the Commission’s decision on Fiat. The judgements confirm that State aid rules enable the Commission to review whether tax rulings endorsing transfer pricing arrangements are in line with the arm’s length principle. However,…

Covington Competition

Vestager outlines portfolio plans in European Parliament confirmation hearing

By Johan Ysewyn, Miranda Cole, Peter Camesasca, Kevin Coates & Barbara Monti

October 15, 2019

After her confirmation hearing in front of the European Parliament on Tuesday 8 October, Magrethe Vestager looks certain to remain as Competition Commissioner for a second term and to combine that with a broader responsibility for digital policy development. Both the second term and the combination of the competition portfolio with a policy brief are unprecedented in recent decades. Several key points, including the way in which she intends to manage digital matters and a…

Covington Competition

Margrethe Vestager re-appointed as Competition Commissioner and given a broader digital mandate

By Johan Ysewyn, Miranda Cole, Peter Camesasca, Kevin Coates & Jérôme de Ponsay

September 11, 2019

On 10 September 2019, Margrethe Vestager was proposed as the European Commissioner for Competition, a post which she has held since November 2014. The appointment is still subject to the confirmation of the European Parliament. Vestager has also been given the role of Executive Vice President, with the mandate of making “Europe Fit for the Digital Age”. In her Mission Letter to Vestager, incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted Vestager…

Covington Competition

The European Commission publishes report on EU loan syndication and its impact on competition in credit markets

By Johan Ysewyn & Daniel Muheme

April 29, 2019

On 5 April 2019, the European Commission (“EC”) published a report – prepared by Europe Economics at the request of DG COMP – on EU loan syndication and its impact on competition in credit markets (the “Report”). The Report describes the functioning of the syndicated loan business and seeks to assess whether there are potential competition concerns with regard to syndicated loans in leveraged buy-outs (“LBOs”), project finance (“PF”) and infrastructure projects (“INFRA”). Syndicated loans…

Covington Competition

An aid scheme or not? The GC annuls the Commission’s decision on Belgium’s system of excess profit tax rulings

By Johan Ysewyn, Sophie Bertin & Geoffrey Kalantari

March 5, 2019

On 14 February 2019, the General Court (“GC”) annulled the European Commission’s (“Commission”) decision of 11 January 2016 declaring Belgium’s system of excess profit rulings as an aid scheme incompatible with the Internal Market. The Commission had ordered the Belgian authorities to recover around € 700 million from at least 35 companies that had benefited from the excess profit exemption through tax rulings. The GC considered that the excess profit exemption was not a “scheme”…

Global Policy Watch

The European Commission finds no illegal State aid was provided by Luxembourg’s non-taxation of McDonald’s

By Johan Ysewyn, Sophie Bertin, Daniel Muheme & Jonathan Benjamin

October 23, 2018

On 19 September 2018, the European Commission (“Commission”) issued a press release declaring that Luxembourg did not provide illegal State aid to McDonald’s with regards to two tax rulings that resulted in double non-taxation of franchise profits in Luxembourg. The Commission’s three-year-long in-depth investigation established that Luxembourg had merely acted in compliance with its national tax laws and that the double non-taxation was the result of a mismatch between Luxembourg and US tax law, as…

Covington Competition

The European Commission finds no illegal State aid was provided by Luxembourg’s non-taxation of McDonald’s

By Johan Ysewyn, Sophie Bertin, Daniel Muheme & Jonathan Benjamin

October 22, 2018

Covington Competition

Parental liability in EU cartel enforcement: has the presumption of decisive control become irrebuttable?

By Johan Ysewyn

August 1, 2018

Does the General Court’s recent ruling in Goldman Sachs/European Commission provide new guidance on the parent liability of financial investors in cartel cases? Yes and no. Yes, because it shows what will not suffice to avoid parental liability. No, because it is silent as to whether in fact and if so how a financial investor can be distinguished from an “industrial” shareholder, and what criteria have to be met to escape parent liability.…

Cov Financial Services

Is the heat on in the syndicated loans market? Spanish Competition Authority fines banks for price fixing on interest rate derivatives

By Sophie Bertin, Geoffrey Kalantari & Johan Ysewyn

July 25, 2018

On 13 February 2018, the Spanish Markets and Competition Commission (“CNMC”) fined four major Spanish banks €91 million for colluding to fix the price of interest-rate derivatives (“IRDs”) attached to syndicated loans above market price. The decision is an additional indication that syndicated loans are increasingly coming under the scrutiny of competition authorities, after the European Commission last year commissioned a study on competition issues in this market that will be completed by the end…

Covington Competition

European Commission – Annual Activity Report – DG Competition 2017

By Johan Ysewyn & Daniel Muheme

July 24, 2018

Introduction On 11 June 2018, the European Commission (“Commission”) published DG Competition’s 2017 Annual Activity Report (“Report”) to provide an overview of its pursuit of its competition policy objectives and enforcement of EU competition rules in 2017. In its Report, the Commission indicates that it has continued to prioritise competition on the merits and that it has focused interventions in the light of priorities outlined in its Political Guidelines, as well as on promoting…

Johan Ysewyn

The GC’s rulings in Fiat and Starbucks : a green light with a warning

Vestager outlines portfolio plans in European Parliament confirmation hearing

Margrethe Vestager re-appointed as Competition Commissioner and given a broader digital mandate

The European Commission publishes report on EU loan syndication and its impact on competition in credit markets

An aid scheme or not? The GC annuls the Commission’s decision on Belgium’s system of excess profit tax rulings

The European Commission finds no illegal State aid was provided by Luxembourg’s non-taxation of McDonald’s

The European Commission finds no illegal State aid was provided by Luxembourg’s non-taxation of McDonald’s

Parental liability in EU cartel enforcement: has the presumption of decisive control become irrebuttable?

Is the heat on in the syndicated loans market? Spanish Competition Authority fines banks for price fixing on interest rate derivatives

European Commission – Annual Activity Report – DG Competition 2017

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