The Need for Reality Checks: An example from the Netherlands

On 31 May 2005, the Court of Rotterdam in the Netherlands annulled a decision by the NMa, the Dutch competition authority, concerning the proposed merger between electricity companies Nuon and Reliant1 After a detailed inquiry, the NMa had cleared the merger conditional on a structural remedy whereby the merged entity was required to auction a part of its electricity generation capacity to third parties for a period of five years…