NMa Netherlands Competition Authority

If you make arrangements with competitors or share information with them about, for example, prices, sharing markets, clients or assignments, you form a cartel. Cartels are prohibited under the Dutch Competition Act. If you have formed a cartel with other companies, you obviously could just wait until the NMa discovers your cartel. In that case, you may be severely fined. However, if you confess your cartel to the NMa yourself, it will definitely pay off.

Are you or your company involved in a cartel, or has this been the case in the past? Come clean and contact the NMa about this. If you provide information about your cartel, and you fully cooperate with the investigation, you may end up having to pay a lower fine or even none at all. This is called ‘leniency’.

For all matters concerning leniency, the NMa has created the Leniency Office. Do you have a question regarding leniency? Would you like to file a leniency request? Have you recently started making preparations for filing a leniency request, and do you have questions about that? Please do not hesitate to contact the Leniency Office – strictly confidential. Should you decide afterwards not to file a leniency request after all, the conversation between you and the leniency officer remains strictly confidential.

Are you the first to confess the cartel, and the NMa had not been aware of the cartel, then you may qualify for ‘immunity’. That means that you do not need to pay a fine. Are you the first one to confess a cartel the NMa had already known about, then you either pay a reduced fine or none at all. The table explains for which fine reduction categories you may qualify.

The sooner you confess your cartel, the more likely you have to pay a lower fine or even none at all. If you wait too long, it may be too late to be eligible for leniency.

Are you considering confessing your cartel? Or have you already decided that you want to confess, but you are still in the midst of preparing a leniency request? Make sure you keep it a secret!

Phone: +31-70-330-1710
Fax: +31-70-330-1700
Email: clementie@nmanet.nl
Leniency Officer: Pablo Amador Sanchez

• Policy Rules of the Minister of Economic Affairs on the reduction of administrative fines in connection with cartels (2009) (in English)
• Dutch brochure on leniency including the complete text of the Policy Rules of the Minister of Economic Affairs on the reduction of administrative fines in connection with cartels (2009)
• Educational video on ‘Leniency in cartel cases’
  Leniency Guidelines (2009)
• Guidelines on granting leniency (in Dutch) (2002)