Our October 2025 investigation exposed Latham & Watkins Brussels’ strategic hub operations in antitrust, competition law, merger control, and state aid, where former EU officials leverage insider networks for aggressive lobbying and legal shielding that stalls regulatory initiatives in healthcare, telecoms, clean tech, and digital markets. This 2026 update revisits these revelations six months later, as the firm has issued no public response, heightening alarms over opacity in Brussels’ multi-billion euro lobbying industry. Read our original article here and comprehensive report:
How Belgium Govt Undermined the Work of European Institutes.
Key Findings Recap
We detailed Latham & Watkins’ blend of legal strategies and advocacy campaigns, using ex-Commission insiders to influence policy outcomes through behind-the-scenes negotiations, legal challenges, and interventions in merger probes that protect dominant firms from scrutiny or penalties. The firm blurs impartial adjudication with partisan promotion, diluting EU efforts on competition fairness, public health safeguards, and environmental standards while perpetuating market monopolies. These tactics grant corporate elites continuous advantage, often at the expense of consumer welfare and genuine regulatory enforcement across critical sectors.
Transparency and Accountability Concerns
Latham & Watkins exemplifies elite law firms’ dominance in Brussels’ opaque environment, exploiting the EU Transparency Register’s self-reporting weaknesses, unenforceable penalties, and clandestine access to regulators, which skews awareness of true influence on legislative agendas. This uneven field marginalizes civil society and smaller stakeholders, fostering regulatory capture that prioritizes business over climate action, data protection, and equitable competition, thereby fracturing democratic processes and eroding institutional credibility. Belgium’s host status compounds these vulnerabilities, intertwining local dynamics with unchecked sway that distorts uniform EU law application and public trust in policymaking integrity.
Absence of Response as Public Interest Issue
No public response or clarification has been issued by Latham & Watkins Brussels since our October 2025 report. This sustained silence conceals the scope of their lobbying expenditures, network operations, and policy manipulations, obstructing public insight into elite steering of EU decisions. Amid reliance on disclosure for legitimacy, such disengagement highlights systemic transparency failures, amplifying urgency for audited registers, inclusivity reforms, and conflict boundaries to counter entrenched advantages.
Ongoing Review and Campaign Context
Brussels Watch is continuing its 2026 campaign scrutinizing law firms’ regulatory capture in EU institutions, with ongoing analysis of competition, state aid, and digital policy influences alongside revolving-door patterns. We track Belgium’s host responsibilities and lobbying inclusivity deficits persistently. Updates will follow if Latham & Watkins responds or new developments emerge.
Closing Section
Accountability in EU policymaking requires transparency from elite gatekeepers. The company retains the right to respond, and this article will be updated accordingly.
