Brian N. Hartnett is managing partner of the Brussels office and a member of the firm’s management committee. Since entering private practice in 1983,
Mr. Hartnett has focused on the competition and trade laws of the European Union with a particular emphasis on the application of European competition rules. He is a barrister and member of both the English and Irish Bars.

Mr. Hartnett is trained in the Competition Directorate of the European Commission and represents US- and Europe-based companies both as plaintiffs and defendants before the Commission in Brussels and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

He has extensive experience in the telecommunications, petrochemicals, IT and media, and retail (FMCG) sectors. The 2008 editions of Chambers Global and PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook acknowledge his expertise in EU competition and antitrust law as does European Legal Experts 2009 and Chambers Europe 2008.

Mr. Hartnett has been involved in some of the most significant cartel and merger cases within the European Union (EU) during the past 16 years. His clients include chemical manufacturers, global telecommunications providers, financial institutions and high-technology systems suppliers. Mr. Hartnett is currently representing a global airline in an airlines fuel surcharge investigation, a Taiwan-based company in an LCD screen price investigation and has just successfully completed the defense of a company in an abuse of market power investigation in the IT sector. Mr. Hartnett also represents companies before national competition authorities and is currently defending a multinational company before the competition authorities of Finland, Sweden and Norway, and is representing a Europe-based alcohol distillery in a state aid case before the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. In addition, he successfully defended a global conglomerate before the European Commission in a major state aid proceeding in 2007.

Mr. Hartnett has written extensively in the field of EU competition law. He is a qualified member of the Irish Bar and member of the Irish Society for European Lawyers, the Brussels Association of Irish Lawyers and the International Bar Association.