Trevor Soames

Trevor Soames is an internationally recognized antitrust and regulatory expert with nearly 40 years’ top level-experience: “one of the finest practitioners in the field worldwide” (Who's Who Legal). Resident, living and working in Brussels since 1993 and presently the Managing Partner of the Brussels office.  Educated at Cambridge University and the Inns of Court School of Law. Trevor qualified as a Barrister in 1984 (Bencher of the Middle Temple), a Solicitor-Advocate and since 2016 an Avocat au Barreau de Bruxelles with full advocacy rights before the EU Courts.

He was Co-Chair of Howrey’s worldwide antitrust practice and founder of its highly successful Brussels office, which ranked as one of only four Brussels Elite practices by Global Competition Review in 2009 and 2010.

Trevor has long been recognized by the leading directories and commentators as one of a handful of leading Brussels players: Commercial Dispute Resolution saying that “Soames himself ‘is a samurai’ in his dealings with competition authorities”. Who’s Who Legal has regularly ranked Trevor as a Thought Leader - Competition. Chambers Europe reports that "he's really decisive," says one client, noting: "when we need high-level attention and someone who can talk to really senior managers in the business, he is the perfect choice.”  Trevor has first chaired many leading cases over the years in areas all aspects of EU and UK antitrust/competition law. These have included mergers, joint ventures, cartels, monopolization (abuse of dominance), state aid and associated litigation including civil damages claims and appeals.

Merger control: Trevor’s experience stretches back into the late 1980s before the EU Merger Regulation came into effect involving a number of cases where the European Commission sought to apply Articles 101 and 102 (ex Articles 85 and 86) to mergers such as Stena/Sea Containers and British Airways/Air Caledonian. After the coming into force of the EU Merger Regulation he has been involved in many Phase I and Phase II cases as well as national litigation which explored the interface between UK merger control law and the residual application of Article 102 (something which has come back to life in the recent Towercast judgment). He represented Rockwell as an intervener (successfully) supporting the European Commission in the GE v Commission and Honeywell v Commission appeals against the controversial merger prohibition decision. A selection of recent merger cases in which he has been involved include Salesforce’s $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack, eBay’s $9.2 billion sale of its classified advertising business to Adevinta and related transactions, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, Broadcom’s merger with VMWare, the eventually abandoned merger between Air Canada and Air Transat.

Cartels: represented clients in many cartel cases investigated by the European Commission as well as the UK authorities going back into the early days of cartel enforcement including ancient cases in the late ‘80s under the RTPA before the Restrictive Trade Practices Court in the UK (Cast Iron and Cast Steel Rolls). A selection of upon which he has worked over the years include Woodpulp, Cement, PVC II, Greek Ferries, Cross Channel Ferries, Airfreight, Cartonboard, Methacrylates, Fittings, Marine Hoses, Bathroom Fittings, Forex (Sterling Lads), Yen Interest Rates Derivatives (YIRD), SSA Bonds and FOREX.

Intellectual property and antitrust: involved in many leading cases in relation to standard essential patents for clients such as Qualcomm, Nokia, Sony Mobile, LGE and Samsung Electronics: “…there is no-one better in the tech space” (Who's Who Legal, Competition 2016). Key cases include the European Commission’s 2005-2009 investigation into Qualcomm’s licensing practices regarding WCDMA (3G) where proceedings were closed without action being taken in 2009 and the European Commission’s into the enforcement of standard essential patents by Samsung Electronics, most notably as regards injunctive relief, which was terminated with Article 9 commitments.

Abuse of dominance/monopolization: first chair in dozens of such cases since the mid-1980s. A selection of cases he has worked on in recent years include the current high profile European Commission investigation into Microsoft (Teams) in respect of which a Statement of Objections was issued in June 2024 as well as amongst others, Monsanto, Microsoft/Internet Explorer, Google Android, Samsung SEP, Motorola, Qualcomm, Qualcomm (Predation), Qualcomm (Exclusivity), Amazon Buy Box/Prime and Facebook Marketplace and other confidential ongoing European Commission investigations. Trevor represented the European Commission successfully defending it in four appeals before the General Court in appeals brought against the dismissal of Article 102 complaints regarding the  De Beers Supplier of Choice selective distribution system.

Transport: for many years he has been a leading lawyer in the transport sector, especially in shipping and air transport having been involved in many such cases, often developing the key precedents.

Aviation related cases include abuse of dominance cases such British Midland/Aer Lingus, Olympic Ground Handling, Iberia Ground Handling, Brussels Zaventem Airport, joint ventures and mergers such as Singapore Airlines/Virgin Atlantic, British Airways/Air Caledonian, British Airways/Dan-Air, British Midland/Lufthansa/SAS, Lufthansa/SAS, United Airlines/Lufthansa/SAS, United Airlines/Lufthansa/Air Canada/Continental (Atlantic A++), United Airlines/Continental, Air Canada/Air Transat. In addition, he has handled many state aid cases such as Ryanair/Aer Lingus, Air France/CDC and (for Olympic Airlines and the Greek Government) many cases before the European Commission and EU Courts regarding the grant of state aid to Olympic Airlines. Trevor has repeatedly been identified by Euromoney as one of the top 20 aviation lawyers in the world and ranked #1 in Belgium in GCR’s International Who’s Who of Aviation Lawyers, praised as “the most prominent competition lawyer in the air transport industry”. Who’s Who Legal has regularly ranked Trevor very highly for his Regulatory work in the Aviation sector.  

In field of shipping, Trevor represented the world’s liner shipping industry through European Liner Affairs Association in the European Commission’s review of the liner shipping block exemption under Regulation 4056/86 and has handled many mergers such as those between P&O/Nedlloyd and Sea-Land/Maersk, joint ventures such as the VSA, Sea-Land/Maersk, Sea Containers/Stena, P&O/Stena and various investigations including for Sea-Land such as TAA, TACA and for Stena such as Holyhead I (v B&I), Holyhead II (v Sea Containers), Sea Containers (fast ferry technology).

Drawing on his experience at the English Bar as both prosecutor and defender in criminal cases, he is well known for his robust advocacy: Trevor Soames is “a superb advocate and orator” with over 30 years of experience across a range of merger, cartel, abuse of dominance and state aid matters.” (Who’s Who Legal). Current competition related cases before the EU Courts in Luxembourg include Air Canada v Commission regarding the 2017 Airfreight cartel decision before the CJEU as well as default interest recovery proceedings before the General Court. Recent non-competition related cases include those for a number of major bondholders whose investment of nearly €1billion was wiped out when Banco Popular was resolved under Regulation (EU) No 806/2014 (Algebris (UK) Ltd and Anchorage Capital Group LLC v European Commission, Algebris (UK) Ltd and Anchorage Capital Group LLC v Single Resolution Board.

Trevor is proud to defend his clients fiercely and without compromise. In 2010, he and his team were awarded Legal Business’ Competition Team of the Year award for the successful defence of Qualcomm in the 2005-2009 Article 102 investigation.

Learn more about Trevor:
https://be.linkedin.com/in/trevor-soames-40b007130
https://vimeo.com/173872215
https://vimeo.com/186433957