About

Provided by Pels Rijcken

Over the years, the influence of European law on our national legislation has gradually increased. Areas such as agriculture, trade and transport were already affected heavily, but legislation now also has a direct impact on the lives of civilians as it touches legal areas such as migration, criminal law and family law. European Law is now found in legal fields and sectors hitherto unaffected.


Pels Rijcken employs attorneys who have closely follow and stay on top of these developments and they know Brussels' procedures and how to play by the EU's institutional rules. They carefully examine the meaning of the Union's legislation and are quick to see where there is room at the national level for additional or deviant measures.


In our advisory practice, state aid is one of the focal points. Where a proposed measure involves government guarantees for housing corporations, saving banks or drafting a partnership agreement for an area development project, the question of whether this measure is "state aid-proof" always arises. We have public sector clients and increasingly act on behalf of provincial authorities and large municipalities. A recurrent question that arises in our advice practice is how to safeguard certain public interests when acting within the state aid framework.


Pels Rijcken EU law specialists spend most of their time litigating before both administrative courts as well as the civil courts, handling cases that range from transport concessions to food safety.

Chambers Review

Provided by Chambers

Competition/European Law - Netherlands

2
Band 2

What the Team is Known For

Pels Rijcken is best known for its popularity with public sector clients, which sees the competition team representing municipalities and the ACM in state aid disputes and challenges to authority decisions. The law firm also represents corporate clients in some of Europe's most high-profile behavioural investigations and follow-on damages actions. In addition to its contentious work, the team acts on merger clearance mandates, including phase II investigations and appeals against prohibited mergers.

Notable practitioners

Marleen Botman is a key contact at the firm.

Work Highlights

  • Pels Rijcken advised the City of Amsterdam in a phase II merger control investigation by the ACM.

Strengths

Provided by Chambers

Members

Provided by Pels Rijcken

Erik Pijnacker Hordijk

Erik Pijnacker Hordijk

Head of Department