Our powers
If businesses fail to comply with the rules, ACM has different options. For example, we can intervene by imposing orders subject to periodic penalty payments or by penalizing the violators with fines. We always investigate first whether or not a business actually violates the rules. We use our tools with care and in a targeted manner in order to ensure that markets work better.
On this page:
Reports
We enforce compliance with the competition rules, protect consumer interests, and regulate specific sectors, such as the energy, telecommunications, health care, transport, and postal services sectors.
If you believe a business is not following the rules, please file a report with ACM.
Reports from businesses are filed with ACM, and those from consumers with ACM's consumer information portal ACM ConsuWijzer. These are filed through requests for enforcement or by anonymous informants.
Such reports enable us to see where potential problems may arise. Any information can help us end violations.
Choices
We receive many reports. Due to the high number of reports, we are unable to investigate all businesses we receive reports about. On the basis of our prioritization policy (in Dutch), we select the problems that we will handle. In that selection process, we ask ourselves the following three questions:
- What is the economic harm?
- What is the importance of the problem to society?
- What is the best way to solve the problem?
In this way, we find out where we can have the most impact in ensuring that markets work well.
Investigations
Before taking action or imposing a fine, we need to investigate whether or not a business has actually violated the rules. Everyone is required to cooperate with our investigations. In such investigations, ACM officers have several powers:
- entering premises (dawn raids or homes);
- requesting information;
- demanding access to documents;
- taking along data.
If we come across correspondence between lawyers and their clients, we will leave such correspondence out of the investigation. This has been laid down in ACM's Procedure regarding the legal professional privilege of lawyers 2014.
If necessary and appropriate, we will also collect data from websites on the internet. We are also allowed to investigate and copy digital data storage devices, such as computers and mobile phones. We will do so in accordance with ACM's procedure for the inspection of digital data. If we investigate digital data, we will also use algorithms. If we believe it is useful to publish certain algorithms, we will add those to the National Algorithm Register (in Dutch).
Taking action using enforcement tools
If the investigation reveals that a business fails to comply with the rules, we can take action in order to end the violation or to penalize violators by imposing a fine.
The effect of our actions is central. We want a structural solution. This means we do not only want to punish the violators, but also deal with the underlying causes and prevent repeat offences. We often use multiple tools in parallel, so that they enhance each other's effects.
We have various enforcement tools at our disposal:
Orders subject to periodic penalty payments
A business is given a deadline before which it must have adjusted its practices. If it fails to do so, it will have to pay a penalty payment, for example, for each day that it continues with its practices.
Binding instructions
In binding instructions, we explain to a business about how it must comply with the law. These instructions are legally binding.
Commitments
Businesses can put forward measures themselves for ending their violations. We can declare such commitments binding.
Warnings
By issuing a warning (either in a meeting or a formal letter), we can ask a business to adjust its practices.
Education
Education is an important tool to make sure that businesses and other organizations comply with the rules. That is why we publish our decisions, vision documents, and interpretations of the rules on our website. We additionally publish studies and advisory papers such as market scans and informal opinions. It is also critical that consumers themselves know and exercise their rights. That is why we inform consumers through our website, social media, and awareness campaigns on ACM's consumer information portal ACM ConsuWijzer.
Fines
We can impose fines on companies or individuals involved. A fine can be as much as 900,000 euros per violation or 10 percent of the affected turnover. The exact amount depends on the seriousness and duration of the violation and on the specific circumstances of the case.
It is important that the fine is proportional to the violation, and that it has a sufficiently deterrent effect, not just on the violator, but on other companies as well. That is why we publish the fines we impose (in Dutch).