Competition

Cartels and abuse of dominance

We have ample experience with cartel and abuse of dominance cases:

• Cartel and abuse of dominance investigations: Stek’s Dawn Raid Team offers immediate assistance with unannounced inspections by the Dutch competition authority (Autoriteit Consument & Markt) and the European Commission. We represent clients in administrative procedures before the authorities and courts and have ample experience with leniency procedures;
• Cartel litigation: Our competition litigation team combines the litigation skills of Stek’s litigators with the competition unit’s robust knowledge of every aspect of competition law. The team represents major corporates and financial institutions in complex domestic and multi-jurisdictional cartel cases (stand alone and follow-on);
• Compliance: We provide practical and ready-to-use advice on all competition-law-related compliance matters, including distribution systems, cooperation agreements, information exchange, and dominance.

Merger control

Our competition team is well versed in merger control procedures. The team’s broad experience includes:

• Dutch and EU merger control filings: We work on merger filings on a daily basis and our experience includes complex second-phase procedures before the Dutch competition authority (Autoriteit Consument & Markt) and the European Commission;
• Multi-jurisdictional merger filings: We coordinate multi-jurisdictional merger control filings and can call on our extensive international network of top-tier law firms for filings in foreign jurisdictions around the world;
• Other merger control issues: In addition to its broad experience in competition law merger control, the team regularly notifies mergers to the Dutch healthcare authority (Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit) under the healthcare-specific merger control rules.

Other areas of expertise

The team’s broad capabilities also include:

• State aid: The team advises on all aspects of state aid law and represents clients on state-aid-related matters before the courts;
• Consumer protection: We represent clients in consumer protection investigations by the ACM;
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) screening: Our experience includes FDI screening procedures and coordinating filings in foreign jurisdictions.

For specific examples of our extensive competition law experience, please refer to our strong track record.

Regulated Markets

The Regulated Markets team advises and litigates on sector-specific issues and represents clients before European and national regulators and policymakers on sector-specific legislation and litigation issues.

We help clients in the complex world of changing laws and regulations, as well as regulation and enforcement of sector-specific laws and regulations by regulators like the ACM. We can provide assistance and advice across every sector of the economy.

“The best in the Netherlands; fantastic reputation”

(Chambers Europe – Energy and Natural Resources)

We have unique expertise and an outstanding track record in the Energy and Utilities sector. We represent our clients (including major industrialists, grid managers, energy producers, energy suppliers and industry associations) in oil and gas, electricity and heat, and in the development of relatively new activities around CCS(U) (carbon capture and storage (and usage)), geothermal energy, sustainable heat, green hydrogen and sustainable and circular energy projects. We are involved in key themes like energy transition and energy law in the broadest sense and help our clients resolve or prevent disputes or issues in areas including tariff regulation, state aid, market and government, subsidies (such as the SDE(++)), electricity grid congestion, market abuse (REMIT), handling complex connection situations, major accidents and grid failures, and ambiguities in European and Dutch legislation and regulations. We also assist clients in designing (energy) projects and transactions in regulated markets and help mitigate the risks in these projects around planning law, including environmental law and spatial administrative law.