Competition law & regulated markets - Ernst & Young - NW

Competition law & regulated markets

The Competition Law and Regulated Markets section engages in all forms of market regulation either by companies or the government. Companies cooperate in many ways, most of the time perfectly legally and appropriately. However, should this cooperation result in restrictive trade practices, this is an entirely different case, even if the restricted trade was not intentional. 

If you are hindered by trade restricting conduct of your competitors, suppliers or purchasers and you wish to take action against this, we can help you. But if it is your company which is possibly involved in a prohibited trade restricting agreement, we can also help you by controlling the risks and taking possible steps towards the supervisory officials.

Regulated markets
In some sectors, there is still a lack of effective competition to allow the market to operate freely.
This is the case in the energy and health care sectors: sectors in which public benefit is at stake on a large scale and which induces the government to regulate market conduct of all parties concerned in advance. However, this kind of regulation may be suffocating and constitutes an unnecessary impediment to the introduction of a new or better provision of services.

Legal proceedings 
The interests of the regulated companies, the government and the supervisory officials are often in contradiction with one another. In order to reconcile these differences, many consultations and discussions take place; nevertheless, legal proceedings are often difficult to avoid. We assist our clients from beginning to end: from the first participation until the final proceedings.