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Henriette Tielemans is a partner in our Brussels office who specializes in the areas of competition law, with special emphasis on European distribution and franchising law, data privacy and security law, and European commercial matters.
In the area of competition law, Ms. Tielemans regularly advises multinationals on all aspects of distribution and licensing, including commercial law aspects such as termination rights and dispute regulation mechanisms. The EC Block Exemption on Vertical Restraints, the EC Block Exemption on motor vehicles, price discrimination, warranty issues, parallel trade, retention of title issues, sales to grey traders or outside of allocated territories, no-competes, goodwill indemnities upon termination or expiry of the agreement, and market dominance, are only a handful of issues on which Ms. Tielemans regularly advises.
Ms. Tielemans has particular expertise in structuring pan-European franchise networks, including registration of franchisors and pre-contractual disclosure requirements in a number of EU Member States.
On the data privacy and security front, Ms. Tielemans is co-chair of the firm's Privacy and Data Security practice group. She advises multinationals on all aspects of data privacy and transfer of data from Europe to the United States, and has assisted several companies to certify under the EU-US Safe Harbor Agreement. She is a regular speaker at privacy conferences in Europe and the US, including the International Bar Association, and was a speaker at a recent workshop of the Department of Commerce and the Article 29 Working Party, on the Safe Harbor and other international transfer mechanisms, where she represented the viewpoint of the data controller. Ms. Tielemans is a regular contributor to BNA's World Data Protection report. Ms. Tielemans developed particular expertise in privacy compliance programs for multinationals involving detailed and tailor-made recommendations for compliance, after an initial assessment of data flows within the organization. Ms. Tielemans works with a pan-European team of privacy specialists and her work covers most of the EU Member States.
Representative Matters
- Ongoing representation of a leading US-based automotive manufacturer on all aspects of its distribution network in Europe and the Middle-East, including the choice of an appropriate distribution system, the interplay between selective and exclusive distribution systems and between sales and rental channels, setting up appropriate structures and mechanisms for customer loyalty programmes, dealer financings, central warehousing, dealer termination issues in several EU Member States, pricing, and similar issues.
- Conducted global data privacy assessments for several pharmaceutical companies with operations in Europe, the US, and several Asian countries.
- Assisted a US based food company in setting up a franchise network in several European countries, prepared the French and Spanish pre-contractual disclosure documents, and secured registration of the franchisor in the central franchise register in Spain.
- Helped a US based multinational in setting up an exclusive dealer network in Russia.
Previous Experience
- The Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen, Assistant Professor (1976-1977 and 1979-1980)
- Trainee in international law firm in Hamburg, Germany (1980)
- The Universite Nationale du Rwanda, Professor of Comparative Law (1980)
Honors and Rankings
- Grant from Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (1976)
Pro Bono
- Handicap International Belgium, Brussels based 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Winner: various professional advice.
- The Arch, an international living community for mentally handicapped: occasional legal advice.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Harvard Club of Belgium
- European Harvard Law School Association
Publications and Speeches
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