Tristan Baumé

In March 1999, a franchise agreement was concluded for a period of five years between Bruna, the franchisor, and the defendant in this case, the franchisee. After renewal in 2004, this agreement was prolonged until 1 August 2009. The defendant was given the right to use the Bruna system for the (...)

On 11 June 2009, the ECJ issued a preliminary ruling in answer to a reference made by the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam, which asked whether the Commission was competent, under Article 15(3) of Regulation n° 1/2003 , to submit, on its own initiative, written observations to a national court in (...)

The municipality of Heerlen is the owner of four buildings located in a shopping street of that city. In order to erect those buildings, the municipality concluded an agreement with Whizz in November 1999, according to which Whizz had to evacuate the kiosk within which it was running his (...)

In April 2004, the Dutch Competition Authority (hereafter the ‘NMa’) imposed fines upon NIP, NVVP, and LVE, three professional associations in field of psychological services, for breach of Article 6 of the Dutch Competition Act (a provision equivalent to Article 81 (1) EC). Furthermore, the NMa (...)

One more time, the Rechtbank of Haarlem has been faced with the issue of the deductibility for corporate tax purposes of fines imposed for breach of competition law. The case at issue concerns an undertaking active in gardening services (hereafter: “X”) which was fined by the Dutch competition (...)

In 1998, PO, a cooperative association of mussel farmers, adopted a regulation (hereafter the “1998 regulation”) providing for the allocation to its members of the mussel seeds quantity that they could fish, of which the total amount is determined by government on a yearly basis. On 25 January (...)

In December 2002, the Dutch Competition Authority (hereafter the ‘NMa’) imposed fines upon five Dutch mobile phone companies for breach of Article 6 of the Dutch Competition Act (a provision equivalent to Article 81 (1) EC). The NMa found that those mobile phone operators exchanged confidential (...)

MF Design is one of the three hundred retailers in the Netherlands selling bedroom necessities manufactured by Eastborn Slaapsystemen (hereafter “Eastborn”). Eastborn used to issue recommended retail prices, which were published in its price catalogue. In 2004, MF Design announced on its website (...)

The present case was concerned with the restrictive effects, under competition law, of contractual conditions surrounding the ending of a franchise agreement in the supermarket sector. The facts of the case were the following. In 1989, Prisma, the legal successor of Flevozoom Vastgoed B.V., (...)

In November 2002, the European Commission imposed a fine upon a Dutch company, (hereafter “X”), for breach of Article 81 EC. The payment of this fine was partly made by another company affiliated to X. Under Dutch tax law, a fine imposed upon a company by a Community institution may not be (...)

The case at hand concerns an experimental coal gasification plant, Demkolec, owned by NV SEP, the legal predecessor of Nederlands Elektriciteit Administratiekantoor (NEA). The Dutch public authorities decided to support the building of Demkolec for environmental reasons. Since the beginning, (...)

On 18 July 2007, the Court of First Instance of Rotterdam (hereafter the ‘Rechtbank’) ruled on an appeal introduced against a decision adopted by the Dutch Competition Authority (Nederlandse Mededingingsautoriteit, hereafter the ‘NMa’) concerning a cartel between three Dutch companies engaged in (...)

On 23 September 1994, BP and the defendant concluded an exploitation agreement according to which the defendant obtained the right to exploit BP’s outlet for the sale of motor-vehicle fuels for a period of fifteen years. This agreement contained an exclusive purchasing clause under which the (...)

In this case, the Court of First Instance of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Rechtbank ‘s-Hertogenbosch) holds that a non-compete clause of 5 years is disproportional in view of its goal and constitutes a restriction by object. However, the Court did not have enough information in order to determine whether (...)

Several franchise agreements were concluded between Make It Easy B.V. and Make It Easy Reality B.V. (hereafter the franchisers) on the one hand, and Make it Easy Gelderland V.O.F as well as other undertakings (hereafter the franchisees), on the other. According to these franchise agreements, (...)

UPC is an undertaking which provides telecommunications services, such as television, telephony and broadband services, within the Netherlands. For several years, UPC has exploited the Municipality of Amsterdam’s cable network. In 2004, the Municipality of Amsterdam decided to build in certain (...)

KPN is an undertaking which provides telecommunication services within the Netherlands. According to the Dutch Telecommunications Act, KPN had to ensure the availability of at least one public pay telephone in every residential dwelling zone of more than 5000 inhabitants. As KPN wished to (...)

X is a partnership under Dutch law which has made several agreements with retailers, including Y. According to the agreements, X delivers, under certain conditions, bread products to the retailers. These bread products are then sold by the latter to consumers. X has initiated a proceeding (...)

NIP, LVE and NVVP are three associations of psychologists and psychotherapists. At least 33% of independent psychologists established in The Netherlands are members of NIP. Psychologists can only adhere to LVE if they are members of NIP. 60% of independent psychotherapists established in The (...)

Rotim is a Dutch company importing, selling and distributing ballast materials for railways. Basalt is a company established in Germany which produces ballast materials. In 1983, Rotim concluded an agreement with Basalt, the so-called “Liefervertrag’, according to which Rotim had the exclusive (...)

Baby Dan is a company which produces security devices for babies, such as stair gates, i.e. gates impeding babies’ access to stairs. Before the first instance court of Utrecht, this company introduced an action in damages against two of its competitors, De Risse and WeDeKa, which had, according (...)

British American Tobacco (hereafter “BAT”) produces and supplies tobacco products. It owns a large number of cigarette vending machines. Chipknip provides services in relation to banking chip cards. When equipped with specific chips, banking cards can be used as electronic wallets. In 1999, the (...)

Nl.tree was established by nine cable operators, in order to supply, following an agreement concluded with the Dutch Ministry of Education, internet access and related services, known as “Kennisnet”, to primary schools, secondary schools and vocational and adult learning institutions. Broadband (...)

Rechtbank ’s Gravenhage, 1 February 2006, Case 243470 Agrofino produces soil. The company is market leader in Belgium and is active in the Southern provinces of the Netherlands. Its soil complies with the legal requirements of Belgium and France. SRB and SET registered the trademark “QualiTree (...)

In 1989, Multicopy (the franchisor) and the applicant (the franchisee) concluded a franchise agreement for the exploitation of a Multicopy print service establishment. This agreement was concluded for a duration of 10 years and was due to expire in October 1999. Under this agreement, the (...)

G-Star is a subsidiary of Secon. It supplied clothes to clothing shops. The distribution agreement between the supplier and the retailers provided that the contract goods could not be sold to consumers from other premises than those to which the goods were supplied. Retailers were therefore (...)

Altough this case concerns a merger in the Dutch insurance sector, it raised general competition issues, among which the notion of economic activity/undertaking for the purpose of Art. 81/82. It involved, on the one hand, “CZ” (Stichting CZ groep Zorgverzekeringen Beheer), a foundation that (...)

PCA is an association of car dealers active in the reparation and maintenance services of Peugeot cars. Peugeot NL imports Peugeot cars in The Netherlands and has selected authorised repairers for the distribution and maintenance of its cars (authorised repairers). Regulation (EC) n° 1400/2002, (...)

Modint was an association of textile undertakings active in the promotion of its members’ commercial interests, especially those relating to commercial transactions. Modint Credit & Finance B.V. (hereafter “MCF” ) was a company providing commercial related services to Modint. Modint members (...)

The plaintiffs were members of the Coöperatie Voedingstuinbouw Nederland (VTN), a cooperative association of farmers in Holland. Pursuant to an exclusive supply obligation contained in VTN’s statutes, VTN’s members were compelled to sell their production of vegetables exclusively to the (...)

KPN, the Dutch historical telecommunication operator, owned an ADSL network through which it provided “fast ip access” to other internet service providers. “Fast ip access” enabled other internet service providers to provide their services to end-users. Wanadoo is an Internet service provider which (...)

Polar is a producer of a range of heart rate monitors and had, for many years, in accordance with an oral distribution agreement, been supplying Walstock, a retailer of sport products. Polar decided, however, to change its distribution policy by distinguishing several range of heart rate (...)

The companies concerned, Marketing Displays International (“MDI”) and VR, established in the United States of America and in The Netherlands respectively, are both active in the manufacture and marketing of bill boards. On 7 September 1990, MDI and VR concluded a licensing agreement, by which MDI (...)

Gerechtshof ’s-Gravenhage, 24 February 2005, Case 04/516, LJN: AS9694 The Dutch competition authority initiated investigation proceedings in 2000 against three subsidiaries of Accel (hereafter “Accel”), which were active in the production and marketing of bicycles. On 28 November 2002, the (...)

Batavus B.V., a bicycle producer, had, for thirty years, a commercial relationship with a retailer, the respondent in the present case, which sold Batavus’ brand bikes. In 2001, Batavus ceased to supply this retailer, which then turned to alternative Batavus dealers in order to obtain supplies. (...)

Market Food Group B.V. (hereafter “MFG”) is active in bakery products. It has developed a franchising network under the brand “Bakkerij ‘t Stoepje” for open air markets stands in The Netherlands. The franchise agreement contains inter alia the following clauses: The franchisee shall exclusively (...)

Dekker is active in the market for the improvement of chrysanthemum species and owns the cultivation rights of certain species. Its market share is estimated at 25% of the Dutch market. Sunfield is active in the breeding of chrysanthemum species and sells cultivation material to cultivators. (...)

The Drogheda Independent Company Limited (“the DIC”) publishes several newspaper titles, one of which being The Extra. The Leader, another publisher, lodged a complaint before the Irish Competition Authority and alleged that the DIC abused its dominant position for selling advertising below cost (...)

An agreement passed with an architect fixed the fee in accordance with the deontological norm set by the Belgian Ordre des Architectes. The architect asked its client to pay the fee for the work he had made. The client refused, arguing that the agreement was void because the fee was set in (...)

The Dutch national competition authority (hereafter NCA) had imposed on NOS, a Dutch national television broadcaster, the obligation to license to the Telegraaf, a national newspaper, the weekly TV programme listing at a reasonable price. The Telegraaf intended to add to its Saturday edition a (...)