Bill Batchelor

Partner, Antitrust/Competition at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Belgium

Speaker

Mr. Batchelor regularly represents clients on EU and global merger control matters and litigation, and provides counsel on distribution and collaboration agreements in complex and highly regulated industries, such as health care, financial services, insurance, media and entertainment, and gambling, among others.

Mr. Batchelor has spent time working in Brussels, London and Washington, D.C., as well as at EU and U.K. competition authorities. He has been recognized as a leader in his field in publications such as Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, IFLR1000 and The Legal 500, as well as Benchmark Litigation, in which he was named a 2021 Litigation Star for Belgium - EU Competition.

Among his recent experience, Mr. Batchelor has:

• represented Zuber and Mohsin Issa, owners of EG Group, and TDR Capital LLP in their acquisition of a majority stake in ASDA Group Limited from Walmart Inc.;
• represented Gilead Sciences, Inc. in its US$5.1 billion transaction with Galapagos NV. This transaction was named M&A Deal of the Year at the IFRL1000 Europe 2020 Awards;
• represented Dyson before the EU courts challenging labeling regulations favoring competing vacuum cleaners. This case was named an Impact Case of the Year at the Benchmark Litigation 2020 Europe Awards;
• advised on merger control and joint ventures in relation to the BP/Nova styrenics joint venture (for BP); Cisco/WebEx (for Cisco); Bain/American-Standard (for American Standard); OTPP/Camelot (for OTPP); Canal+/TVN (for Canal+); Warner Bros./Eyeworks (for Warner Bros.); and ADM/Wilmar (for ADM);
• annulled a cartel decision and fines of €519 million involving the synthetic rubber cartel; annulled a €119 million fine involving the GIS cartel;
• secured one of the lowest negotiated settlements in the seven-year-long DRAM investigation, halving the fine in the Windows Mountings case based on financial distress;
• secured immunity or substantial leniency discounts in the pipe fittings, citric acid and sodium gluconate cartels;
• settled the investigation of a large multinational bank in the EU Belgian banks cartel investigation;
• settled the 9/11 aviation insurance cartel inquiry on behalf of a major reinsurer;
• represented a pharmaceutical company before the General Court in an alleged “reverse payment” settlement agreement; and
• represented KirchMedia (now Infront), and subsequently FIFA, before the EU courts reversing EU decisions mandating free-to-air coverage of the FIFA World Cup.