Frank Fine

frank.fine@eclalaw.be

Frank Fine has practiced EU competition law in Brussels since 1986, after having obtained an LL.M. at Cambridge University that year. In 1995, he obtained a Ph.D. in EU Competition Law from Cambridge. Since 1986, Mr. Fine has been involved in various merger filings, as well as cartel and abuse of dominance investigations. He has also advised national competition authorities and judiciaries in various countries such as Lithuania, Egypt, Jordan, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

  • His representative matters include:
  • Advising major Chinese chemical manufacturer on complex global distribution scheme.
  • Providing in-depth GDPR compliance services to leading vehicles manufacturer.
  • Advising major bank on its EU data privacy compliance.
  • Advising Chinese shipping company on international joint venture.
  • Representing a major smartphone producer on its EU distribution system and antitrust risks.
  • Representing the complainant in the IMS Health abuse of dominance case, one of the seminal EU investigations involving an abuse of IP rights, which ended up in the EU Court of Justice and resulted in a judgment supporting the complainant. This was one of the rare instances in which the EU Commission imposed interim measures.
  • Representing a trade association in an EU complaint alleging abuse of dominance by three patent pools controlling the DVD standard. For one of the pools, it resulted in lower royalty rates.
  • Acting as lead EU Counsel to South African Airways in its defense of the EU air cargo cartel investigation, resulting in no finding of liability.
  • Representing a major U.S. breakfast cereal producer on a string of European acquisitions.
  • Representing a major U.S. aerospace/defense firm on one of the largest defense acquisitions of its time.

Mr. Fine is also the Executive Director of the China Institute of International Antitrust and Investment in Beijing under the auspices of the China University of Political Science and Law, where he is Visiting Professor of EU Competition Law. From the CIIAI’s inception, Mr. Fine has been the Institute’s Executive Director, with responsibility for organizing high-level conferences, seminars and workshops in China, including events geared to antitrust regulators and judges. In 2017, CIIAI became UNCTAD’s exclusive antitrust partner in China.

Mr. Fine has published many articles on EU antitrust law, some of which have appeared in law reviews of universities such as Harvard, Northwestern and Georgetown. He is the author of Mergers and Joint Ventures in Europe: The Law and Policy of the EEC, one of the seminal works on EU merger control, which was published by Kluwer in several editions. He is also the author of The EC Competition Law on Technology Licensing (Sweet & Maxwell), the first book dealing with the EU Technology Transfer Regulation and Guidelines, and on the compulsory licensing of essential patents. Mr. Fine is the General Editor of European Competition Laws (three-volume service, Lexis Nexis), the only treatise covering the competition laws of the EU and all 27 Member States. He has also spoken at many international antitrust conferences.