Competition & Regulation

On 18 December 2024, FrieslandCampina and Milcobel announced their intention to merge. De Brauw assists FrieslandCampina on this important step in the joint future of FrieslandCampina and Milcobel. By combining their forces, a leading dairy cooperative and dairy company will be created. The merger is intended to provide a strong foundation for a future-oriented organisation that has dairy front and centre for member dairy farmers, employees, consumers, and customers.

De Brauw advised Royal BAM Group N.V. on the divestment of its 50% share in Invesis to joint venture partner PGGM Infrastructure Fund. The parties have reached conditional agreement on this divestment. The closing of the transaction, which is subject to obtaining relevant authority clearance and completion of the works council consultation process, is expected to take place early 2025.

De Brauw advised Pon on the sale of its remaining sales, rental and service activities for Caterpillar construction equipment in the Netherlands and Norway to the German Zeppelin Group. In 2019, Pon already sold its Caterpillar activities in Denmark and Sweden to Zeppelin. Pon will continue to focus on mobility through its automotive and bikes activities.

On 22 November 2024, in a case between Panasonic and OPPO, the Mannheim Local Division (LD) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) handed down the first ever full-fledged substantive decision on the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs) on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The UPC had already dealt with FRAND cases in the context of procedural orders. Below we provide a brief overview of these developments, which are relevant to both SEP holders and implementers.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives are now critical drivers for companies – there is no getting around it. Companies often make significant ESG efforts. But when they wish to – or have to – communicate about these efforts, a growing web of regulations becomes relevant. This, coupled with increasingly active authorities who are on the look-out for greenwashing practices, means that it can be hard to establish what is, and what is not, allowed or required. Below, we will summarise the state of play and also look ahead.

The Dutch government has unveiled a new law designed to bolster and regulate the defence and security industry in the Netherlands. The proposed Defence and Security-Related Industry Resilience Act (Defence Resilience Act) is directed at companies active in these industries and contains a number of provisions aimed at improving Dutch armed forces operations. Structured around three major pillars, the act introduces a new sector-specific foreign direct investment (FDI) screening mechanism, lays out a framework for certifying Dutch companies to compete for foreign defence contracts, and draws up measures to enhance the Dutch defence industry's production, innovation and international competitiveness in general. Companies active in defence and security-related sectors can expect changes in M&A processes, new opportunities for international contracts, and a stronger regulatory framework that aligns with EU, US and Canadian standards. This could lead to increased economic activity coupled with more regulatory hurdles and government supervision.