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The Commission’s fight to avoid paying interest to Deutsche Telekom is over. The ECJ upheld the right of companies to receive interest on unduly collected antitrust fines, carrying a hefty price tag for the Commission.

The ACM will, possibly as a prelude to an upcoming New Competition Tool, launch market investigations into five sectors. Companies are well-advised to prepare for upcoming market investigations and potential solutions for identified market failures.

On 23 January 2024, the ACM announced its priorities for 2024. The energy transition, the digital economy and sustainability are still on the ACM’s priority list, but now with better-equipped enforcement methods available.

On 26 January 2023, the ACM announced that its priorities for 2023 would be the energy transition, the digital economy, and sustainability. This agenda is unsurprising in view of the ACM’s recent policy statements and enforcement actions.

The District Court of Oost-Brabant recognized the res judicata effect of a Turkish court of appeal judgment, in which the Turkish court had dismissed antitrust damages claims brought by Vestel against Philips, Samsung, LGE, Technicolor, TTD and TDP.

The ECJ upheld the Commission’s fine on Scania for participating in a cartel. The Commission’s impartiality is not necessarily impaired by having the Commission case team in charge of the settlement procedure also deal with the penalty decision.

Are ‘European champion’ companies walled off from unfair (foreign) competition the future? The European Commission recently presented its Competitiveness Compass to navigate the European Union to strengthened competitiveness.

On 13 February 2025, the District Court of Rotterdam upheld the ACM’s approach in its ruling on the appeal against the regulator’s first-ever excessive pricing fine.

Unilever shows the need to assess evidence on lack of anti-competitive effects in abuse cases and how liability can extend across different levels of the supply chain. Dominant undertakings had better think twice when imposing policy on distributors.

The ACM’s push for companies to come forward for an antitrust blessing of their sustainability solutions is paying off. The ACM has again given informal guidance to companies wishing to make sustainability agreements.

The Commission’s guidelines on collective agreements clarify the manoeuvre room solo self-employed persons have under the competition rules to collectively boost their working conditions. A Directive on platform work working conditions is on the way.

After a busy 2024 in terms of screening action, there is no time to take a rest for the Dutch and EU legislators on the topic of investment screening. Time for another update!

On 31 January 2025, Belgium's Government Agreement for 2025-2029 was published, focusing on strengthening competition, safeguarding tech expertise, and increasing subsidy transparency. However, more steps are needed to define practical implementation.

Where is the line between openness and protectionism in the European single market? At both EU and national level, more and more protective barriers against foreign investors and acquirers have been created in the international competition.

Since 2021, Dutch rules against unfair trading practices, which implemented an EU Directive, apply to business-to-business relationships in agri-food supply chains. Enforcement by the ACM, initially slow, is now intensifying.

The Foreign Subsidies Regulation has celebrated one year of its application. Time for companies to take stock of the lessons learnt from key developments of this first year. However, ambiguities remain and more is yet to come. Watch this space!

After 16 years of court battle, the Brussels Court of Appeal has rejected the EU’s EUR 12 million (+ interest) damage claim against the four lift producers that participated in the lift cartel fined in 2007.

In 2022, the ACM and the European Commission put the spotlight on the accuracy of companies’ sustainability claims. Notably, the ACM published several market studies and adopted commitment decisions concerning allegedly misleading sustainability claims.