Under the leadership of Martijn Snoep, the Dutch antitrust watchdog has been developing unique approaches to deal with challenges affecting competition authorities across Europe. Snoep, a competition lawyer with a distinguished career at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, assumed the role of the head of the Dutch competition authority in 2018, without any obvious controversy regarding impartiality.
This somewhat contradicts the backlash experienced during Fiona Scott Morton’s appointment as the European Union’s chief economist, after her previous consultation work with numerous tech giants came to light.
Despite his comprehensive career serving as managing partner at one of the country’s most respected law firms, Snoep’s appointment to the Dutch regulatory body seems to have been accepted without question in the Netherlands. This may be indicative of cultural variations, or potentially the Dutch’s inherent trust in the system’s ability to maintain competition markets.
To learn more in detail, consider reading the original article from Law.com’s International Edition ‘Competition is in Our DNA’: Head of Dutch Competition Authority on Keeping Markets Competitive.