Preliminaries (< 2001)
In 1992 the European Commission fined the Dutch Construction Industry for widespread cartel practices. Construction companies had participated in the so-called Association for Price Regulating Organisations [Stichting prijsregulerende organisaties/ SPO].
This Association set up a collaborative system which the Commission deemed to be anti-competitive. Cartel infringements included meetings prior to tendering for contract, market sharing and price fixing. The Court of First Instance and ultimately the European Court of Justice upheld the Commission's decision.
In 1998 the Dutch Competition Act came into force. The newly established NMa was granted far-reaching powers in carrying out its main task of enforcing the Competition Act. In its early days, the Authority handled more than one thousand notifications - resulting from the transitory regime under the Dutch Competition Act and the European judgment in the SPO case - filed by various players in the Dutch Construction Industry.
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