Jacques Steenbergen

Former President at Belgian Competition Authority

Speaker

Prof. em. Dr. Jacques Steenbergen (born in Antwerp (Belgium) in 1949) was from its establishment as an independent authority in 2013 till 2023 president of the Belgian Competition Authority. He was from 2007 to 2013 director general of the directorate general for competition in the Belgian ministry of economic affairs. He taught competition law at the University of Leuven from 1980 to 2014. Before joining the competition authority, he was partner in the Brussels office of Allen & Overy, and he has been legal secretary to the President of the Court of Justice under the presidency of Prof. J. Mertens de Wilmars. He was also member of the Bureau of the Competition Committee of the OECD from 2010 till 2021.

He is member of the board of editors and former editor-in-chief of the Dutch-Belgian European law review SEW and member of the scientific committee of the law review Concurrences. He is a honorary member of the Bar of Brussels (Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten bij de Balie te Brussel) and a former member of the Brussels and Flemish Bar Councils.

He lectured or gave conferences and served as member of nomination or PhD examination committees in institutes and universities in Austria, Belgium, China, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He was also speaker or chairman at conferences in Australia, Brazil, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland and Tunisia. He publishes regularly on EU and competition law.

He obtained a PhD at the KU Leuven with prof. dr. W. van Gerven on legal remedies and ailing industries (1978). He holds a masters degree in law from the KU Leuven (1972), and bachelor degrees or equivalent certificates in law, philosophy and economics from the University of Antwerp (UFSIA)(1969).

He is a Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold.