Commercial Court

The Commercial Court is a court invested with three kinds of different competences:

A general competence: the Commercial Court is competent to hear all cases of dispute between enterprises, regardless the amount involved in the current litigation (B2B).

A special competence: the Commercial Court is competent to hear a variety of cases of dispute, regardless of the amount involved in the current litigation (claims relating to services assigned to the Post Office, claims concerning maritime and inland waterway transport issues, actions for rectification and removal of registrations in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprise, actions between enterprises concerning copyright and contestations relating to acts of the National Lottery).

An exclusive competence: the Commercial Court has exclusive competence for cases of dispute relating to bankruptcies and judicial reorganization.

The Commercial Court is made up of both professional judges and consular judges. The latter are not necessarily legal experts. In fact, the consular judges will often come from business and finance circles. With their experience and expertise they enable and assist the court to better understand the conflicts. Each Chamber of the Commercial Court is thus composed of a professional judge assisted by two consular judges. When certain specific matters are heard by the Commercial Court, such as, among other things, bankruptcy, the Public Prosecutor is also present.

In case of disagreement with the decision given by the Commercial Court, each party may lodge an appeal before the Court of Appeal on condition that the amount involved in the dispute is not less than € 2,500. Below € 2,500 no recourse is possible.

Definitions provided under this section refer to the Belgian situation; unless specified otherwise. The texts are meant to summarize concepts in daily language and should not be considered as comprehensive or definite. We welcome suggestions for modifications or additions at glossary@tcm.be.