The Rotterdam District Court has ruled on NS's appeal against the decision of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) to impose a fine of over € 40 million on NS. ACM had imposed the fine because NS according to ACM, it has an economic dominant position on the Hoofdrailnet (HRN) and NS has abused that dominant position on another market, namely the Limburg public transport tender market, by using a predatory price.

At the request of the Parliament's standing committee for Finance inquired Hoekstra, the Minister of Finance, on the decision of the court. The court is of the opinion that ACM has not convincingly proven that NS has an economically dominant position on HRN.

ACM has not investigated the conditions under which the State granted the concession for HRN to NS. In the court's opinion, ACM should have carried out that investigation in order to determine whether NS actually has an economic dominant position on HRN.

The court furthermore considers that NS's behavior in the Limburg public transport tender does not fall within the scope of the prohibition of abuse of an economic dominant position, because the connection between the Limburg public transport concession and the position of NS on the HRN after 2024 is too uncertain. The court has not come to the question whether NS's offer in the Limburg public transport tender was actually loss-making.

Six weeks to appeal