Europe - Netherlands
3

EU and competition

Bird & Bird

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Bird & Bird‘s EU and competition practice, based in The Hague, is formed of ’top lawyers who provide high-quality advice’ to a host of high-profile clients. Team lead Pauline Kuipers has impressive experience handling the array of matters, namely in the telecoms, media and postal sectors. Janneke Kohlen is also key to the team, with expertise in both competition and public procurement matters. Its workload ranges from advising on all aspects of mergers, to defending in alleged violations of EU competition regulations.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Key aspects of the team lie in its collaboration and approach.'

  • 'Bird & Bird has a low-threshold attitude, is directly approachable and responds quickly.'

  • 'Both at partner level and in support, they are well-informed about current situations in procurement law and know how to summarise questions quickly and answer them adequately with good advice.'

  • 'In interlocutory proceedings, they proved to choose a good procedural line and worked this out perfectly.'

  • 'Accessible, human and sharp.’

  • ‘Janneke Kohlen and Tialda Beetstra are very approachable, very pleasant interlocutors and know how to very quickly and adequately answer the questions at hand when it comes to advice. Both are very knowledgeable and pleasant to work with.’

  • ‘Strong legal expertise in the team.’

  • ‘Top lawyers who provide high-quality advice.’

Key clients

  • T-Mobile Netherlands B.V.
  • Cellnex Telecom S.A.
  • Salta (formerly NCOI) Holding B.V.
  • Computrain Opleidingen B.V.
  • Tempur Sealy
  • PPG
  • Open Dutch Fiber BV
  • Marshall Land Systems Ltd.
  • Blackboard International B.V.
  • Corbion N.V.
  • NLdigital
  • Epson

Work highlights

  • Advised and represented T-Mobile in all competition law matters including its judicial intervention in the merger control proceeding at the Dutch competition authority concerning the joint venture between KPN and APG.
  • Advised Royal A-ware on the take-over of a producer of grated cheese in the Netherlands, Noordhoek.
  • Represented PostNL in appeal proceedings before the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal.

Lawyers

Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Pauline Kuipers
Bird & Bird
Pauline leads our Competition and Public Procurement Practices and co-heads our Media Group in the Netherlands. With almost 20 years of experience, Pauline specialises in EU and Dutch competition law in regulated markets. Her team deals with cartel procedures, abuse of dominance matters, merger notifications to the Dutch competition authority and European Commission as well as coordination of multiple merger filings, private enforcement actions, competition regulation of network industries as well as the media sector and competition rules on undertakings granted special or exclusive rights by the state including state aid. Her practice also includes public procurement law. Her previous experience in intellectual property law has given her specific expertise to advise in matters on the verge between competition law and intellectual property, such as licensing arrangements and other technology transfer agreements, standardisation discussions, refusal to license, FRAND licensing, abuse of IP rights etc. She is also a member of the Communications and Life Sciences Groups of Bird & Bird.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Janneke Kohlen
Bird & Bird
Janneke is partner in our Competition & EU Law practice and is based in The Hague. Janneke specialises in competition law and public procurement law and advises a wide variety of clients, both contentious and non-contentious. She has substantial experience in merger control, cartel cases and abuse of dominance. Janneke has broad expertise in advising on distribution agreements and frequently provides in-house competition compliance programs and trainings to clients. Additionally, she has extensive experience in drafting Codes of Conducts and compliance manuals for companies with a focus on competition law. In addition, she advises a wide variety of clients on public procurement issues throughout the process from reviewing tender documents and advising clients on which questions should be asked of the procuring entities and representing companies in court, if necessary. Her practice areas are primarily focused on the postal and telecommunications, consumer products as well as food and beverages sectors. She is also a member of our Tech & Comms Group. Janneke also publishes regularly and is co-editor for the European and Economic chapter of the Dutch journal 'Juridisch Up To Date'.Testimonials - The Legal 500 EMEA 2021 ‘Janneke Kohlen, together with her strong team, is able to answer questions quickly and thoroughly.’ ‘Janneke Kohlen is always well prepared for any meeting, as is her strong team. She combines her incredible legal knowledge with deep industry knowledge and is able to answer questions quickly and thoroughly. A great thing about Janneke is that she does not present the rules of law, but that she thinks along with the organisation and comes up with practical, step-by-step and easy to implement tools for every situation.’

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Pauline Kuipers

Other key lawyers

Janneke Kohlen, Tialda Beetstra, Joost van Roosmalen

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