Anne Robert

ANNE ROBERT advises multinational clients on EU antitrust/competition, regulatory, and policy matters across a variety of industries, including life sciences, food, energy, aviation, and transport.

“Anne Robert is not only a joy to work with, but is also knowledgeable and diligent” and that she is “detail oriented and understands the nuances of her client’s business, which is essential to satisfying regulators.” Chambers Global and Europe 2026

She provides strategic counsel in complex cartel and abuse of dominance investigations before the European Commission and national competition authorities and regularly represents clients in high-stakes litigation proceedings before the EU Courts. Here experience includes securing an award-winning victory in a landmark case involving EU free movement and e-commerce rules.

“[Anne] inspires a lot of confidence” and that “it is very, very clear that she is an expert in EU competition law” Clients further highlight that she is “responsive and overall a real team player.”
Chambers Global and Europe 2025

Anne also advises on transactions, State aid, antitrust compliance, and regulatory strategy, with extensive experience in complex, multi-jurisdictional matters, including across the Middle East.

She is a member of the Executive Committee of W@Competition, a platform for women competition professionals, and is actively involved in the Women’s Life Sciences Network (WLSN), a platform for high-level discussions of life sciences law and policy developments. Anne is responsible for the antitrust supervision for each of the Sidley Life Sciences Legal Networks. She is also a regular speaker and contributor to conferences and has published widely on EU competition law and policy issues.

Anne has earned acknowledgement in industry ranking guides:

• Chambers Global and Europe (2025 – 2026) — Named as Up and Coming : Competition: EU.
• Legal 500 EMEA (Belgium) 2025 – 2026 — Recommended in Competition: EU and global, where clients state “Partner Anne Robert is a star. Her knowledge and experience with competition law is vast; she is able to navigate complex matters across jurisdictions” (2025).
• Legal 500 EMEA (Belgium) 2024 — Recommended in Competition: EU and global. The 2023 edition recommended Anne for her standout role in pharma sector antitrust litigation.
• Law.com International’s 2024 — Named “Rising Stars: Europe’s Best Up-and-Coming Female Lawyers” list.
• W@’s Five Star Women Competition Professionals 2022 — Named a “Rising Star” in the Private Practice category.

She has also won the “Antitrust & Competition Lawyer of the Year” award at the Women in Business Law EMEA Awards 2024.

Anne gained first hand in-house experience during a secondment to the Group Antitrust team of a multinational pharmaceutical company in Basel, Switzerland.

She is fluent in English, French, Italian, German, and Luxembourgish.

Anne’s recent experience includes representing:

Investigations

• A pharmaceutical company in several parallel investigations by national competition authorities involving allegations of an abuse of dominance, including by charging an excessive and unfair price.
• Assist several online pharmacies in an investigation by the European Commission into restrictions of the free movement of goods imposed by the German government.
• A leading automotive distributor as an EU competition law expert in an investigation by an antitrust authority in the Middle East.
• A global medical device company with EU competition law advice, including acting on their behalf as a third party in responding to the European Commission’s requests for information relating to an abuse of dominance investigation.

Litigation

• Representing DocMorris before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (Case C-517/23, Apothekerkammer Nordrhein) in a case concerning patient benefits offered by online pharmacies and whether they constitute advertising for medicinal products under EU law.
•  Representing Doctipharma in litigation proceedings before the CJEU (Case C-606/21) relating to the sale of non-prescription medicinal products by pharmacists via an online platform.
•  Representing Les Laboratoires Servier in ongoing litigation proceedings before the General Court of the European Union and the CJEU involving an alleged breach of EU competition rules (Cases T-691/14, C-201/19 P and C-176/19 P). The Sidley team won an award for “Impact Deal of the Year” at the 2021 LMG Life Sciences Awards for this matter.
• Shop-Apotheke B.V. in a landmark victory before the CJEU (Case C-649/18) relating to national advertising rules applicable to pharmacists and to over-the-counter medicinal products sold online and their compatibility with EU free movement and e-commerce rules. Bayer CropScience in its appeal before the CJEU (Case C-499/18 P) regarding EU restrictions on the use of neonicotinoid substances in plant protection products.

Transactions

• Vivo Capital on Its Acquisition of Dutscher Group.
• Woodward, Inc. in its acquisition of aircraft equipment manufacturer Safran’s electromechanical actuation business.
• A number of pharmaceutical companies in a variety of strategic transactions.

EU Regulatory

• DocMorris, Redcare and the European Association of E-Pharmacies (EAEP) on a variety of EU law and policy matters relating to restrictions of cross-border online sales of medicinal products.
• A biopharmaceutical company on a variety of regulatory and competition law matters, including on price-setting for newly developed products, and questions regarding parallel distribution of innovator products.

Anne serves as Brussels co-leader of SidleyWomen.