Diederik Schrijvershof was interviewed by Amweb about the new working methods of the Authority Consumer & Market (“ACM”). The ACM had questioned Amweb about the wave of consolidation among intermediaries. Diederik Schrijvershof was asked about the ACM's motivation to focus on mergers and acquisitions below the current turnover related thresholds: “It is clear that they are shifting their attention from cartels, which are no longer there, to mergers and private equity takeovers. Although they can also find this information on the intake form that every merging party has to submit to the ACM. They have to fill in all mergers and acquisitions from the past five years, even if they already fall below the current turnover thresholds.”
Diederik Schrijvershof also pointed out in the interview that the Dutch Senate recently approved an amendment to the Dutch Competition Act, which already gives the ACM additional powers in the short term to assess mergers and acquisitions below the current turnover related thresholds: “They [the ACM] will soon also be able to test small mergers and acquisitions, which fall below the notification threshold, against the prohibition on abuse of a dominant position, as stated in Article 24 of the Dutch Competition Act. This new power creates uncertainty for non-notifiable M&A transactions where the buyer with a high market share takes over a small company in the same sector.”
Read the full article here.
Follow Maverick Advocaten on LinkedIn
