On July 12, the Dutch Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal upheld the decision of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets, or ACM, to conditionally clear the acquisition by publisher Sanoma Learning BV of schoolbook distributor Iddink Holding BV.
This judgment marks the end of lengthy proceedings involving Sonoma, the ACM, and Noordhoff Uitgevers BV as a complainant that started back in 2019. The ACM conditionally cleared the proposed transaction in August 2019, imposing its first ever merger control access to a platform and to data remedy. The behavioral remedy package as now vetted by the tribunal requires the merging parties to provide competing publishers with equal access to a digital learning platform, Magister, as well as to data from that platform.
Click on the media link below to read the full article. Robert Hardy authored this ‘Expert Analysis’ on Law360. The article is reproduced with the permission from the publishers. For further information, visit https://www.law360.com/articles/1524054.