Pauline Kuipers

Competition Law

Pauline is a partner in Bird & Bird's NL office, based in The Hague, where she was one of its founding lawyers in 2001.

Today, Pauline leads our International Competition Law Group and heads our Competition Group in the Netherlands, providing clients with wide-ranging expertise in EU & competition law, particularly in regulated sectors and on the interface between IP and competition law. She is also a member of the ESG steering group.

On the basis of Pauline's EU law expertise, she advises many global companies on ESG regulatory developments, particularly CRSD and CSDDD, and helps them understand how these regulations affect their business and what it means in terms of compliance.

In The Netherlands, Pauline leads the team dealing with cartel procedures, abuse of dominance matters, and merger notifications to the Dutch competition authority and European Commission. They also co-ordinate multi-jurisdictional merger filings and foreign investment screenings, and deal with private enforcement actions, regulation of network industries.

Meanwhile, Pauline's expertise in IP law enables her to advise in matters at the convergence of competition law and intellectual property, such as licensing arrangements and other technology transfer agreements, standardisation discussions, 'refusal to license' issues, FRAND licensing, and abuse of IP rights.

In addition, her team advises on competition rules on undertakings granted special or exclusive rights by the state, including state aid and foreign subsidies.

Pauline teaches competition law in the Professional Education for In-House Lawyers courses and publishes regularly on competition law topics. Over the years she has served on the board of the Dutch Competition Law Association and been Secretary General of the International League of Competition Law.

Dutch Competition Law Association, Dutch Association for Media and Communication Law and the Licensing Executives Society.

• Main Developments in Competition Law and Policy 2023 – The Netherlands (Kluwer Competition Law Blog, May 2024).

https://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2024/05/22/main-developments-in-competition-law-and-policy-2023-the-netherlands/

• What to expect during dawn raids under the DMA, the DSA, and the draft AI Act (Kluwer Competition Law Blog, May 2024).

https://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2024/05/10/what-to-expect-during-dawn-raids-under-the-dma-the-dsa-and-the-draft-ai-act/

• Artificial Intelligence: a new dimension for competition and supervision? (Mededingingsrecht in de Praktijk, April 2024 – in Dutch).

• The Thin Line between Resale Price Restraints and Resale Price Recommendations: The Samsung Ruling of the District Court of Rotterdam of 13 November 2023 (Kluwer Competition Law Blog, December 2023).

https://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2023/12/04/the-thin-line-between-resale-price-restraints-and-resale-price-recommendations-the-samsung-ruling-of-the-district-court-of-rotterdam-of-13-november-2023/

• Dutch ACM Upholds its Penalty Order against Apple: Apple’s App Store Terms Are in Breach of Competition Law (Kluwer Competition Law Blog, November 2023).

https://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2023/11/02/dutch-acm-upholds-its-penalty-order-against-apple-apples-app-store-terms-are-in-breach-of-competition-law/

• ACM merger decisions at the notification stage – short or shortage (M&M Redactioneel, May 2023 – in Dutch) – Pauline sits on the editorial board of this prestigious Dutch competition law journal Markt & Mededinging (M&M)

• Sustainability and Competition: From Hot Topic to Business As Usual? (Kluwer Competition Law Blog, October 2023).

https://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2023/10/13/sustainability-and-competition-from-hot-topic-to-business-as-usual/

Studied:

Leiden University, Law (Dutch, international/EU)

Leiden University, History

Admissions:

The Hague Bar, Netherlands in 1995