


Maurits J. F. M. Dolmans
Maurits J.F.M. Dolmans is a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton based in the London office. Mr. Dolmans’ practice focuses on EU, UK, and international competition law, as well as EU regulatory, and EU intellectual property law. Mr. Dolmans has extensive experience in the information technology, telecom, media and entertainment, as well as in energy, medical devices, chemicals and manufacturing industries. He appeared in proceedings before the EU Commission and the EU courts, national courts and national competition authorities of several Member States, and ICC and NAI arbitrations. Many of his competition cases involve abuse of dominance, licensing or refusals to license, European standardization, access to networks, mergers, joint ventures and other transactions in the IT, telecom and other areas, intellectual property arbitration and litigation, abuses of dominance and cartels. He has published widely in these areas. Recent public cases involve EU clearance for Google’s acquisition of Motorola, UK OFT clearance for Google’s acquisition of Beatthatquote, successful closure of a range of complaints against IBM for alleged abuse of dominance, representation of Google in a wide range of matters involving alleged abuse of dominance relating to patents, search services, and advertising. Other matters include representation of various complainants in Commission and European Court proceedings against Microsoft concerning the interface between IP and competition (e.g., disclosure of Microsoft interoperability information), unilateral conduct (tying of media player and browser, pricing practices, etc), leading to the successful 2004 EC decision, the rejection of interim measures requested by Microsoft and the rejection of Microsoft’s appeal to the European Court in 2007, as well as the 2009 Microsoft Interoperability Undertaking and the 2009 Microsoft Browser Choice Commitment. Another recent series of highly visible cases concerns the interaction between international standardization and antitrust and IP, including licensing practices and abuse of dominance. Mr. Dolmans is distinguished by Chambers "The World’s Leading Lawyers" and other publications as a leading lawyer in the areas of Competition/Antitrust and Communications. Mr. Dolmans joined the firm in 1985 and became a partner in 1994. He received an LL.M. degree from Columbia University in 1985 and a Master of Laws from the Rijks Universiteit Leiden in The Netherlands in 1984. Mr. Dolmans is a member of the Bars in New York, Rotterdam and Brussels (E-list). His native language is Dutch, and he is fluent in English and French. He also has a working knowledge of German.
Distinctions
Nominee, 2021 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Intellectual Property
Nominee, 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Unilateral Conduct
Nominee, 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, General Antitrust
Nominee, 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Intellectual Property
Nominee, 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Concerted Practices
Winner, 2018 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, General Antitrust.
Nominee, 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards: Academic, Concerted Practices
Winner, 2015 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Intellectual Property
Nominee, 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards: Academic, Dominance
Nominee, 2013 Antitrust Writing Awards: Academic, General Antitrust
Nominee, 2012 Antitrust Writing Awards: Business, Anticompetitive Practices
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15901 Bulletin
243
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) is consulting on its draft guidance (“Draft Guidance”) for its proposed Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Order (“VABEO”). It invites comments by May 5, 2022. The Draft Guidance largely maintains the status quo. There are, however, a number of (...)
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On 20 July 2021, the UK Government announced that the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which was passed on 29 April 2021, will come into force on 4 January 2022. This new regime for review of investments on national security grounds will be among the most wide-ranging in the world. It (...)
278
The European Commission (“EC”), on July 9, 2021 [1], published its long-anticipated proposed update of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation [2] (“VBER”) and the corresponding draft Vertical Restraints Guidelines (“Vertical Guidelines”) [3] for public consultation and comment by September 17, 2021 (...)
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On January 28, 2021, the Rotterdam District Court handed down judgment in an appeal brought by Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) against an October 2019 magistrate ruling regarding the scope of legal professional privilege (LPP) over legal advice given by Shell’s in-house lawyers. The judgment is a (...)
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On December 9, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union granted Canal+’s application to annul the European Commission’s decision under Article 9 of Regulation No. 1/2003 to adopt commitments offered by Paramount (the “Commitments Decision”). The commitments prohibited Paramount from (...)
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On November 11, the UK Government proposed a new national security screening regime that would allow the Government to intervene in “potentially hostile” foreign investments that threatened UK national security while “ensuring the UK remains a global champion of free trade and an attractive place (...)
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On October 13, 2020, the European Commission published a call for contributions to determine if and how EU competition policy can better support the European Green Deal. The European Green Deal is a comprehensive action plan aimed at making Europe the world’s first climate neutral continent by (...)
129
In September 2020, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced that from mid-2021 the European Commission (“EC”) would “start accepting referrals from national competition authorities of mergers that are worth reviewing at the EU level – whether or not those authorities had the power to (...)
136
On 5 September 2020, the UK Government accepted undertakings from Gardner Aerospace Holdings Limited not to proceed with its proposed acquisition of Impcross Limited, a UK-based manufacturer of components for the aerospace industry (including for military aircraft). Gardner is owned by (...)
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On August 11, 2020, a Ninth Circuit panel reversed the District Court for the Northern District of California’s judgment in FTC v. Qualcomm, Inc. The panel held that Qualcomm’s conduct—(a) refusing to license its standards essential patents (SEPs) to rival chipset manufacturers; (b) refusing to (...)
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The CMA’s Guidance on applications for leniency and no-action in cartel cases provides detailed guidance on the principles and process for leniency applications. On 30 July 2020, the CMA invited comments on a proposed addendum to clarify the way the CMA will exercise its discretion in relation (...)
372
On 22 June 2020, the UK Government introduced new measures allowing it to intervene in merger transactions “to maintain in the United Kingdom the capability to combat, and to mitigate the effects of, public health emergencies." The Government will be able to intervene on these grounds in any (...)
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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to extreme demand and price volatility for certain products, as well as fluctuations in firms’ costs. As firms struggle to manage these changes, agencies are aggressively seeking to show they are preventing consumer exploitation—for example, as a result of (...)
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On 1 April 2020, the CAT published a summary of an application to commence collective proceedings under section 47B of the Competition Act 1998. The application was filed by Mark McLaren Class Representative Limited, a special purpose vehicle, alleging losses arising from the European (...)
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This article has been nominated for the 2020 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On 18 July 2019, the European Commission (“EC”) fined Qualcomm for abusing its market dominance by selling 3G baseband chipsets below cost, to force its competitor (...)
229
In 2015, the EU Interchange Fee Regulation (the “IFR”) introduced price caps on the interchange fees paid between banks for processing credit and debit card payments. These fee caps attempt to address concerns identified in a series of antitrust investigations into Visa and Mastercard through (...)
225
This article has been nominated for the 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On December 21, 2017, the District Court for the Central District of California issued TCL v. Ericsson, resolving a long-standing dispute between the parties (...)
327
On October 17, 2017, the UK Government published legislative proposals that would give it greater powers to intervene in mergers that raise national security considerations or involve national infrastructure. In the short-term, any transaction involving a party active in the manufacture or (...)
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(“CJEU”) set aside General Court’s 2014 Intel judgment, upholding a European Commission (the “Commission”) decision fining Intel €1.06 billion for abuse of dominance through exclusivity rebates . The CJEU held that the General Court had erred in failing to examine all of Intel’s arguments calling (...)
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On May 18, 2017, the European Commission (the “Commission”) fined Facebook €110 million for providing incorrect or misleading information during its 2014 investigation of its acquisition of WhatsApp The magnitude of the fine dwarfs the few penalties the Commission has imposed in the past for (...)
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In September 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) launched a Market Study into digital comparison tools (“DCTs”). On March 28, 2017, the CMA published an update on the Market Study setting out its preliminary findings and areas of focus for the second part of the Market Study. The (...)
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The Damages Directive seeks to promote private enforcement of EU competition law before national courts across the European Union (the “EU”). The UK Regulations implementing the Directive were laid before Parliament on 20 December 2016 but will not come into force until after they have (...)
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This article has been nominated for the 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On March 2, 2015, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”), the agency responsible for investigating price-related violations of China’s (...)
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This article has been nominated for the 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. I. Introduction This e-Competitions Special Issue collects articles on competition law developments relating to the Internet at national and EU levels, as (...)
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I. Introduction The last decade has seen Internet-based “disruptive innovation” in many sectors of the economy, not least communications, media, advertising and retail. This unprecedented development has brought about changes that would have been unimaginable until very recently: Websites, (...)
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This article has been nominated for the 2012 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. On January 14, 2011, the European Commission (the “Commission”) published new Guidelines on the Applicability of Article 101 TFEU to Horizontal Co-operation (...)
9690 Review
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In this On-Topic issue we have invited prominent competition lawyers and economists – from academic, judicial, enforcement and practice sides of the profession – to discuss a book by two leading antitrust thinkers. The book ’Competition Overdose: How Free Market Mythology Transformed Us from (...)
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“Fairness” in EU competition law is hotly debated. This article explores the concept from a sociological, philosophical, and legal perspective, and suggests there is a fairness paradox: while competition law should reflect the values of fairness, if fairness were actually employed in substantive (...)
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We are enjoying the benefits of the IT revolution over the last few decades—free online searches, free social media, free smartphone software, and constant innovation. At the same time, the online environment is more and more dominated by a handful of IT giants. Digital consolidation is (...)
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Les contributeurs à ce dossier « Tendances » se sont vu soumettre une question qui pourrait sembler simple a priori : Les normes ouvertes promeuvent-elle la concurrence ? Cependant, la réponse à cette question requiert un travail préalable et délicat de définition des termes du sujets. Rédigés par des (...)
Books

This 5th edition of the Competition Law Digest provides readers with a synthesis of leading antitrust cases from 1990 to 2021, from the EU & Member States, the US, and other relevant (...)

The consensus is clear - climate change is the defining challenge of our time. Meeting this challenge requires a collaborative and inclusive response from all segments of society - including (...)

The purpose of this book is to compare and contrast EU competition case law with European Members States competition case law, and Members States competition case law with each other. To the best (...)