Netherlands: Sustainability and competition: from hot topic to business as usual?

Written By

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Tialda Beetstra

Senior Associate
Netherlands

As senior associate in our Competition & EU Law and Regulatory Groups in The Hague, I specialise in regulatory disputes and administrative law, with a focus on the technology, communications and energy & utilities sectors.

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Pauline Kuipers

Partner
Netherlands

I am a partner in our NL office, based in The Hague, where I was one of its founding lawyers in 2001.

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Joost van Roosmalen

Associate
Netherlands

As an associate in our regulatory and competition & EU team in The Hague, I use my broad knowledge of competition law and regulatory matters to advise our clients on both contentious and non-contentious matters.

The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has adopted a final policy rule offering insight on how it applies competition rules to sustainability agreements. Notably, the ACM maintains its focus on sustainability and competition, indicating its intentions to depart from the EU Commission's guidelines in two specific scenarios. Firstly, when businesses agree to comply with a binding national or European rule even if not fully implemented or enforced, and secondly when businesses agree to achieve environmental goals even if consumers are not fully compensated for the effects of the agreement. the cases that the ACM has assessed so far on the basis of its draft guidelines were not very spectacular or ground-breaking from a competition law perspective. Without the application of the draft guidelines, the cases would most likely still fall outside the scope of the cartel prohibition. Now that the dust has settled and the competition law assessment of sustainability agreements is more clear one could be tempted to conclude that the practical relevance of the sustainability policy seems limited.

Read the full article on the Kluwer competition law blog

For more information, please contact Pauline Kuipers, Tialda Beetstra and Joost van Roosmalen.

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