Background
The first part of a long-awaited modernization of the Dutch Competition Act 1997 has recently been finalized.
On July 20 2004 an act amending the Competition Act was published in the Law Gazette. The amendment was deemed necessary on two grounds: (i) the Dutch competition regime needed to be harmonized with the EU regime as determined by EU Regulation 1/2003; and (ii) a thorough evaluation of the Competition Act, which included a Social and Economic Council advisory report, concluded that the act, which entered into force in 1998, needed updating. A reduced set of modification proposals survived a long process of policy decisions and parliamentary discussions.
The amendment, which will be followed shortly by a second amendment, contains two noteworthy changes: (i) the individual exemption system has been abolished; and (ii) the fine for failure to cooperate with the Dutch Competition Authority has been increased one hundredfold to €450,000. The amended Competition Act
