Annabelle Lepièce

Annabelle Lepièce is a European law specialist, particularly in relation to European competition law: state aid, merger control, anti-trust law. She is the head of CMS Belgium’s Competition and EU Law practice. She also has expertise with the free provision of services, free movement of goods and freedom of establishment. Her legal practice includes drafting and submitting public intervention notifications to the European Commission (rescue and restructuring aid, investment aids, RDI schemes, etc) and representing the Belgian, French, Spanish, Romanian, Dutch authorities and beneficiaries in European investigations on alleged illegal aid.   

She has a recognised expertise in relation to air transportation and the aviation sector, the banking sector, the manufacturing industry, energy and government investments. She also advices airports and airlines on the public investments they may benefit from their public shareholders. She is one of the Belgian experts of the 2019 Study for the European Commission on the application of state aid rules by national jurisdictions.  

Annabelle is a recommended lawyer in the 2019 edition of the GCR 100 as well as in the in the 2019 edition of the Chambers and The Legal 500 EMEA.   

She regularly lectures on state aid at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University, at the Ecole Nationale d’Aviation Civile and at the Assembly of European Regions, at Connect, etc. She has published numerous legal articles on state aid issues.

She is regularly invited to hearings by the Committee of the Regions as an expert in State aid. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Revue du droit des Industries de réseau (RDIR), of the “Competition Women’s Network” and the Belgian Competition Law Association.