The competition authority NMa has an effect on mergers and cartels just by being there, according to a survey carried out for the organisation by economic research agency SEO and reported in the Financieele Dagblad.

The SEO research shows that the NMa creates an ‘anticipation effect’ which stops companies going ahead with a merger because they know they will not get it past the competition authority. For every 100 mergers that go to the NMa, 18 that are either changed or dropped.
In the case of cartels, for every one fined by the NMa, there are five that are altered or stopped completely, the research shows.