NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Ekram Belhadj and Cees Dekker, Simmons & Simmons LLP
the Dutch market or a part of it, irrespective of the location of the undertakings or associations concerned: the ACM has the competence to impose sanctions on an undertaking even if that undertaking is located in another country. In the Shrimps case, the ACM imposed fines on under - takings located abroad (Denmark and Germany) for the first time. Furthermore, Article 5 of EU Regulation 1/2003 gives the ACM the power to apply Article 101 of the TFEU – ie, cartel conduct that may affect trade between member states – to individual cases. 1.7 Principles of Comity No specific principles of comity are applied within the context of Dutch competition law. The ACM, however, co-operates closely with the European Commission and other Euro - pean NCAs through the European Competition Network (ECN), as required by EU Regulation 1/2003, for example in regard to case allocation between the NCAs and sharing information with and using information supplied by another NCA (Article 12 Regulation 1/2003). Under this regu - lation, the ACM is also authorised to conduct unannounced inspections in the Netherlands on behalf of another NCA, as it did in at least two instances in 2024. 1.8 Enforcement Priorities The ACM does not focus on specific types of cartels. In recent years, it has been observed that, in addition to classic cartels, the ACM also sanctions hub-and-spoke(-like) cartel behaviour and price influence or price setting in vertical relationships (distribution relationships). 1.9 Guides Published by Governmental Authorities The Ministry of Economic Affairs has established various policy rules and decrees regarding the application and enforcement of Article 6 related
to the ACM. In addition, the ACM has released numerous guidelines, policy rules and other doc - uments over time addressing cartel behaviour, its monitoring and enforcement. These include the following. The Ministry of Economic Affairs: • the Decree regarding exemptions for co-oper - ation agreements in retail trade; • the Decree regarding exemption for sector protection agreements; • the Policy Rules regarding combination agreements 2013; and • the Policy Rule regarding fines. The ACM: • the Guidelines regarding Price arrangements of self-employed workers; • the Guidelines regarding Collaborations between competitors; • the Policy Rule regarding the ACM’s oversight of austainability agreements; • the Guidelines regarding Arrangements between suppliers and buyers; • the Guidelines regarding collaborations between farmers ; • the ACM procedure regarding informal opin - ions ; • the 2014 ACM Procedure for the inspection of digital data; • the ACM Procedure regarding the legal pro - fessional privilege of lawyers; • the Decision regarding the granting of leni - ency; • the Guidelines for simplified resolution of sases involving a fine; and • the Policy rule regarding the prioritisation of enforcement investigations.
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