Hera Butt, Author at Kluwer Competition Law Blog

Anticompetitive agreements, Joint ventures, Merger control, Netherlands

Port towing joint venture dissolved after investigation by the Dutch Competition Authority: full-functionality questioned

Mariska van de Sanden (Bird & Bird, The Netherlands), Janneke Kohlen (Bird & Bird, Netherlands), and Hera Butt, Tialda Beetstra (Bird & Bird)/January 27, 2020January 26, 2020 /Leave a comment

Background On 20 December 2019, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) published a decision in which the commitment to dissolve the joint venture Port Towage Amsterdam (PTA) by two port towing undertakings was confirmed. This joint venture was created by the undertakings Svitzer and Iskes. ACM believed that the cooperation between the two…

Cartels, Competition law, Netherlands

Competition law and sustainability initiatives: Dutch bill provides more leeway

Mariska van de Sanden (Bird & Bird, The Netherlands) and Hera Butt (Bird & Bird)/September 23, 2019September 20, 2019 /Leave a comment

Introduction On 4 July 2019 a long-awaited Dutch legislative proposal regarding sustainability initiatives (“Wet ruimte voor duurzaamheidsinitiatieven“) was submitted to the Dutch House of Representatives. The proposal aims to foster collaboration between undertakings towards sustainability goals by removing the barrier of competition law. This is an interesting development because of at least two reasons: (i)…