Blogs

This last year Dutch courts have clarified the rules on what is known as the “passing on” defence. The European Commission had previously stated that it considered such a defence legitimate, but the rulings of Dutch courts in such cases were not yet unequivocal. They were able to state their opinion on this point again this last year. Read more >

ACM recently announced that after four years it has closed its investigation into possible abuse of a dominant position by AstraZeneca. ACM ultimately took the position that AstraZeneca did not have a dominant position and for that reason cannot have breached the prohibition of abuse of a dominant position. Read more >

The world is increasingly online – and the same applies to the distribution of products. The European Commission has stated that it attaches great importance to internet distribution (also known as “e‑tailing”). National competition authorities are increasingly focusing on resale price maintenance, usually combined with online distribution. That is not yet the case in the Netherlands. Read more >

The Court of Justice recently made it clear that an infringement of the cartel prohibition is a fact if it is apparent that an agreement between undertakings sufficiently distorts competition. It remains to be seen whether the judgment will have major consequences in practice.  Read more >

The Dutch telecommunications sector is on the eve of the fourth regulatory period. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (“ACM”) will be making a number of market analysis decisions (“MA Decisions”) again soon. Those decisions will largely set the playing field in the telecom sector in the next three years. Read more >

KPN expects that there will ultimately be room on the Dutch market for two combined fixed/mobile network operators (in any event including KPN itself) and one additional Mobile Only player. A significant consolidation effort will have to be made to achieve that. Read more >

Trade associations sometimes use blacklists to warn their members or consumers about dishonest suppliers or competing companies. Such blacklists can have a major negative impact on the companies affected. But do the competition authorities allow such blacklists? Read more >