Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012 - American Chamber of ...

agreements, as well as other agreements in specific sectors, such as
the insurance sector and the automotive sector. All Regulations have
a direct effect and are directly applicable in the Netherlands.
An important EC Block Exemption Regulation is that for vertical
agreements. The previous EC Block Exemption Regulation on
vertical agreements expired on 31 May 2010. It was replaced by a
new, amended Block Exemption Regulation which will remain in
effect until 1 June 2022.
In principle, the Regulation automatically exempts vertical agreements
for the purchase or sale of goods and services from Article 101(1) of
the Treaty, provided that the supplier’s and buyer’s market share do
not exceed 30% and the agreement concerned does not contain any
“hard core restriction.”
Typical hard core restrictions are fixed and minimum resale price
maintenance, absolute territorial restrictions and absolute customer
restrictions. Agreements exceeding the 30% market share threshold
are not eligible for automatic exemption, but may still be exempt
pursuant to Article 101(3) of the Treaty following an individual selfassessment.
Non-competition restrictions imposed on a purchaser in a
vertical agreement are generally required not to exceed five years.
Article 102 of the Treaty provides that any abuse of a dominant
position by one or more undertakings within the EU (or a substantial
part of it) is prohibited if trade between EU Member States may be
affected. Illustrations of possible abusive behavior are excessive
pricing (whether low or high), fidelity rebates and discriminatory
practices.
Upon infringement of the Article 101 or Article 102 prohibition, the
European Commission is empowered to impose fines of up to 10% of
the worldwide group turnover of undertakings involved.
The EC Merger Regulation, which gives the European Commission
control over mergers and acquisitions, as well as certain types of joint
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