VALGAEREN Erik

Erik specializes in legislation and regulation related to IT, the internet, e-commerce, electronic communications, privacy, digitization, and new technologies. He also has extensive experience in all aspects of intellectual property related to the aforementioned specializations and a deep knowledge of the technical aspects of communications.

In addition to his legal advice on legislation and regulation, Erik drafts contracts and manages projects concerning Web services, outsourcing, cloud services, system integration, software implementation, data management and privacy, artificial intelligence, and innovation partnerships. In the field of communications law, Erik advises both traditional telecommunications operators and infrastructure service providers, as well as new media and social network service providers. He also advocates in judicial and arbitral courts. Erik has extensive experience in arbitration and regularly acts as an arbitrator for Cepina.

In 2020, Erik was appointed by the Brussels Bar Council as a third-party leader under the "binding third-party decisions" regulation. He is a member of the editorial board of Computerrecht, the Belgian-Dutch legal journal on ICT published by Kluwer, and a member of the technology committee of the International Bar Association. Furthermore, he is a member of Beltug, the Belgian association of digital technology leaders, and a member of the board of the Flemish Bar Association (OVB), where he is responsible for digitization and GDPR. In addition, Erik is the author of various publications on his areas of expertise and is frequently invited to speak at seminars and conferences.

Erik holds a Master of Law degree from KU Leuven and an LL.M. from the University of Chicago. He also holds a postgraduate diploma in data analysis from KU Leuven and has completed a Master's program in Information Management at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Erik was a guest professor in ICT law at the Solvay Brussels School for five years and a guest professor in Internet law at the University of Luxembourg for four years. He was also a guest professor in blockchain and smart contracts at KU Leuven from 2018 to 2020.

He joined the Brussels office of Stibbe in 1993.