Overview

The Dutch Competition Authority (NMa) has imposed penalties on Royal Wegener NV and five managers amounting to over €20m, with Wegener itself fined €19m and the five managers each facing personal fines of €150,000 to 300,000. The fines were imposed for failure to comply with conditions attached to a 2000 merger approval for the acquisition by Wegener of VNU Newspapers.

Additionally, the NMa ordered that Wegener meet the merger conditions within one year, failing which Wegener faces a penalty of €1m per quarter to a maximum of €20m. Pieter Kalbfleish, Chairman of the Board of the NMa, said "We take this matter extremely seriously, as Wegener came up with the violated requirement itself, as a result of which we could adopt the acquisition of BN/De Stem. As it turns out now Wegener did not comply with the requirement for years on end, at least since 2002".

Under the 2000 merger approval, the NMa required that Wegener guarantee the independence of two newspaper titles brought under common ownership as a result of the acquisition, in order to retain freedom of choice for readers and prevent simultaneous price increases and a reduction in supply. Investigations by the NMa show that both journals ignored the requirement since 2002. Kalbfleish: "We proceed from a 'high-trust' approach: you get the confidence, but if you abuse, then there are substantial fines".

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