The EU and competition practice at Houthoff is led by Yvo De Vries who joined from A&O Shearman in June 2023. The ‘excellent team’ has strong expertise handling cartels and abuse of dominance matters, including damages litigation; matters relating to state aid, which is the focus area of De Vries; and on EU law and European litigation matters. The practice services clients spanning the array of industry sectors but it has noteworthy capabilities in the healthcare and energy sectors in particular. Former co-lead Weijer VerLoren van Themaat retired from practice in December 2023.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Murat Duman has proven able to combine in-depth sector knowledge with legal expertise, leading to strong argumentation overall.'
‘Accessible, fast, excellent quality, and well familiar with our company.’
‘Weijer VerLoren van Themaat, Murat Duman and Karmijn Krooshoff make an excellent team as well as excellent individual advisors.’
‘Rick Cornelissen is one of the best competition litigation lawyers around. He is very knowledgeable, practical, and communicates well.’
‘A very proactive team that not only takes care of imminent tasks but looks ahead and provides guidance on how to best take care of matters ahead.’
‘Rick Cornelissen is very client-oriented and excellent in resolving misunderstandings that can emerge.’
‘A very hands-on approach from the business-centric, efficient and pragmatic team.’
‘Gerrit Oosterhuis is a very experienced competition lawyer with strong advocacy skills who is able to get even the most tricky transaction approved.’
Key clients
- Imperial Brands
- Nexans
- Volvo Trucks
- Renault Trucks
- Nexperia
- EY
- TotalEnergies
- Cordes & Graefe Gruppe
- Bergman Clinics
- Aramis Consortium: Shell, TotalEnergies, EBN, Gasunie
- Milence
- Equipe Zorgbedrijven
- Consortium of VodafoneZiggo, T-Mobile, KPN and Delta Fiber
- Cargolux International Airlines
- LG Electronics
- Kia Nederland
- Volvo Car Corporation
- Volvo Car Nederland
- Bugaboo International
Work highlights
- Advising Nexans et al. on its defence strategy against cartel damages claims filed by Electricity & Water Authority of the Government of Bahrain; GCC Interconnection Authority from Saudi Arabia; Kuwait Ministry of Electricity and Water; and Oman Electricity Transmission Company SAOC.
- Representing Imperial Brands in its appeal before the District Court of Rotterdam against a record fine of €82m by the ACM on tobacco manufacturers for alleged collusion.
- Representing Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks in multi-party cross-border litigation before the Dutch courts in relation to mass damages claims following on from the Commission’s claims of competition law infringements in the trucks sector.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Yvo de Vries