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ARTICLE · 18 FEBRUARY 2014

Court Limits Naming And Shaming By Dutch Competition Authority

De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek
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Denial appears to be the best strategy in preventing the Dutch competition authority, the ACM, from publishing a decision to impose a fine and thus branding a company a cartel infringer.

NetherlandsAntitrust/Competition Law
Jolling De Pree
Jolling De Pree
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Denial appears to be the best strategy in preventing the Dutch competition authority, the ACM, from publishing a decision to impose a fine and thus branding a company a cartel infringer. The District Court recently granted only one request to prohibit publication of a decision on a fine. The successful applicant had explicitly denied its involvement in the alleged cartel.

The ACM's decisions on fines are related to the manipulation of foreclosure auctions by real estate traders. In preliminary relief proceedings and in order for it to decide on whether the decisions should indeed be published, the court found that the general interest served upon  publication of these decisions needed to be weighed against the applicants' interest to not suffer disproportionate harm. Disproportionate harm would be suffered if decisions for the fines were quashed in court, since it would result in an unjust mention of the applicants as cartel infringers. A provisional review of the

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