Martijn van de Hel has successfully represented H&S Coldstores in appeal proceedings against the fine imposed by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) for alleged infringement of the cartel prohibition by Van Bon, a former joint venture, regarding the storage of juice concentrates in the Betuwe region in the Netherlands. ACM believed that Van Bon had shared competition-sensitive information (on e.g. price and capacity) with a competitor.
In the court’s opinion, ACM should not have assumed that a national market existed without further investigating the geographic market. The court also found that ACM had insufficiently demonstrated that the contacts formed part of an overall plan and therefore constituted a single infringement. The court therefore overturned the fine.
Martijn was interviewed by Het Financieele Dagblad, De Telegraaf and De Volkskrant about the court’s judgment. The articles in question can be found here (FD), here (Telegraaf) and here (Volkskrant).
