Bringing our two success stories together will make us into one of the largest group of competition experts in Brussels, with valuable public and private sector experience, an excellent complementary skill set, as well as wide sectoral and international coverage.

Moreover, having access to a large global group of leading experts with diverse experience and practice areas, including arbitration and litigation, and powerful resources globally, will allow us to better serve our clients, particularly those outside Europe.

We are looking forward to working with you in this new capacity.

We remain committed to a quality debate between lawyers and economists, academics and partitioners, as well as the private and public sector. The challenges of our time will not be solved by posturing and one-sided conferences or debates in name only, intended to confirm the audience’s opinions or self-biases. Now more than ever, we need platforms where a genuine debate can be held, building bridges between separate shores. With this in mind, we plan to transform Positive Competition into such an independent platform, with the help of like-minded colleagues. Please reach out if you would like to join this project. And continue watching this space as well!

Please see the BRG press release here:

BRG Further Expands Competition Practice with Addition of Expert Team in Brussels

BRG announced today the expansion of its European Competition practice in Brussels with the additions of Dr Aleksandra Boutin and Dr Xavier Boutin and their team of economic consultants from Positive Competition. This will significantly reinforce BRG’s existing practice, which has offices in Brussels, Paris and London. They join managing directors Dr Adina Claici, Konstantin Ebinger, Laurent Eymard and Prof Kai-Uwe Kühn, who formed the practice in September 2023; and David Parker, who joined in January 2024.

Aleksandra Boutin explained the appeal of the move: “We are joining a team with complementary expertise and skills and a strong international presence to enhance our value proposition for our clients. This will allow us to reach jurisdictions in Europe and beyond in our core business of mergers, antitrust and litigation. In addition, we will further expand our specialist expertise in key areas such as state aid, Foreign Subsidies Regulation and matters relating to the Digital Markets Act”.

Xavier Boutin added: “Having successfully built Positive Competition in Europe, we have now found a global team at BRG that shares a similar entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to client service. We have known each other for years and are excited to join forces with a team of experts who share our forward-looking ethos. Together, we make one of the largest on-the-ground teams in Brussels, and with seven of us ranked by Who’s Who Legal, we are also one of the most experienced”.

Prof Kühn said: “I worked with Aleksandra and Xavier, as well as Cyril Hariton, in my role as chief economist at the European Commission and hugely value their expertise and experience, particularly in merger control and antitrust matters. Bringing together our two success stories gives us the scale and reach to handle cases of any size across multiple jurisdictions. I very much look forward to collaborating with them again”.

Dr David Evans, BRG’s Global Leader for Digital Economy and Platform Markets, noted: “Having a strong EU presence is an integral part of our global strategy to handle antitrust, merger and regulatory matters involving digital platforms, which are increasingly prominent and scrutinised. Adding these cutting-edge economists to our already strong team makes BRG one of the leading competition practices in Europe”.

“The extent and pace of BRG’s strategic expansion in Europe allows us better to serve our clients around the world”, said BRG Vice Chairman Dr David Sunding. “We now have even greater capacity and depth of talent to handle the most demanding mergers and other competition, antitrust and related litigation issues, and we will continue to grow the practice in line with our clients’ needs. We are delighted to welcome Aleksandra, Xavier and their team to BRG”.

The expanded European Competition practice now includes around 40 professionals in Brussels, Paris and London, speaking ten European languages natively. Eight are ranked by Who’s Who Legal, and six have significant senior-level experience at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition. BRG also works closely with a network of academic affiliates, including two Who’s Who Legal-ranked experts. BRG numbers almost 1,600 professionals worldwide.