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Companies beware: completed non-notifiable concentrations do not necessarily go scot-free. An ex post abuse-of-dominance investigation by national competition authorities (NCA) could still loom.

2022 marks the second year of the EU Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Regulation, and the year in which legislators haven been busy shaping the Dutch national security screening regime and the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

2023 marked the near finale of the European Commission’s overhaul of its competition policy, leaving only a few loose ends to tie up in 2024/2025. It is now time to watch theory be put into practice by the competition authorities and at the courts.

Earlier this year, the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) entered into force to close a loophole in EU regulations aimed at creating a level playing field within the internal market.

On 14 July 2023, the Belgian Competition Authority confirmed its jurisdiction to review M&A transactions between hospitals, regardless of whether these hospitals belong to the same hospital network.

The ink on the Digital Market Act has barely dried, but fast-evolving digital developments already have competition authorities calling for new tools. Is Big Tech not kept in check by the DMA, the antitrust rules and the EU Merger Regulation after all?

While 2022 revolved around new and improved regulatory tools, the focus in 2023 will be on putting these tools to use. More merger-related obligations, digital sector scrutiny and clarity on competition-law and consumer-law aspects is imminent.

Dutch investment screening is rapidly expanding: since June, the proposal for a separate defence regime has been published and the intended expansion of the regime of the Vifo Act to include AI and biotech has been announced. Reason for a quick update!

While skimming through employees’ chat conversations and e-mails, it is not uncommon for competition authorities to stumble across other potential antitrust violations, separate from the initial scope of the search.

Cross-border corporate lending is set for change as CRD VI introduces new licensing obligations, requiring non-EU lenders to reassess their activities in the Netherlands and the EU for all in scope contracts signed on or after 11 July 2026.

The EU is proposing major reforms to its securitisation framework that will reshape how financial institutions approach the market, including an overhaul of the EU Securitisation Regulation and permanent relief for SFTs under banking rules.

Suppliers and distributors should double-check their agreements. The European Court of Justice has provided guidance for the assessment of exclusive distribution agreements.

The rise of sustainability-linked loans in the syndicated loan markets draws the attention to the role of the Sustainability Coordinator, which plays a key role in loan transactions.

The European Court of Justice has confirmed that the essential facilities test is limited to ‘pure’ access cases. Infringement of a regulatory access obligation must be assessed under the general framework for abuse of dominance.