Michel Jacobs

Background

In 1992, Michel completed his studies at Leiden University (International Law) and Universität Osnabrück, Germany (European Law). He has been working as a lawyer since 1994 and joined Ploum in 1999. In 2004, Michel became partner In 2001/2002, he completed the study programme in Dutch and European Competition Law at the Grotius Academy and in 2010 the Postgraduate Masters in EU Competition Law at King’s College in London. From 2009 until 2014 he was a member of the board of Ploum.

As per 1 June 2015 Michel has been appointed as member of the supervisory board of the Dutch organization I+Solutions. This organization specializes in pharmaceutical supply chain management for developing countries. Its services comprise of procurement services for essential medicines against malaria, HIV and tuberculosis and training and consultancy services in supply chain management in order to make health systems in developing countries more resilient.

Examples of recent work

• Involved as counsel for a number of market parties in civil proceedings against Dutch Railways in which, relying on the doctrine of probability damages, more than EUR 300 million in (probability) damages has been claimed.
• Representing Dutch clients in arbitral proceedings against an African State regarding the non-fulfillment of its contractual obligations; amount in dispute more than 120 million euro;
• Merger notification before the Dutch health care authority NZa and the competition authority ACM for health care foundations ZorgSaam Zeeuws-Vlaanderen en Warmande. Special to these procedures is that ACM approved this merger on the basis of an argument it had not accepted before (the so-called failing firm exception);
• Representing Kuwait Petroleum (Nederland) B.V. in a civil cartel damages procedure, in which procedure Kuwait joined Shell to defend itself against a substantial damages claim of road construction company Van Gelder;
• Assistance to several companies in the port of Rotterdam during multiple ACM-investigations;
• Assistance to a company world wide active as direct selling company;
• Advice on the termination of (online) distributors within the FMCG sector and other sectors as well;
• Assistance to a Swiss company regarding internal investigations in which a large amount of data was analyzed for the use in legal proceedings;
• Assistance to German companies seeking advice in relation to proceedings in the Netherlands (see also: German Desk);
• Assisting a client in a EUR 65 million+ professional liability lawsuit against its former lawyer and law firm;
• Representing an international company as defendant in a civil cartel damage procedure, initiated by an indirect customer. Claim amounting to tens of millions of Euros;
• Acting as counsel for a claim vehicle against the Dutch State Lottery (Staatsloterij) on behalf of a large number of clients. See: www.loterij-incasso.nl

Memberships

• Visiting lecturer at the Institute of Health Policy & Management (iBMG) of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in competition law.
• Member of the supervisory board of the Dutch organisation I+Solutions

The Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas (rechtsgebiedenregister)

Michel Jacobs has registered the following principal (and secondary) legal practice areas in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas (rechtsgebiedenregister):

• Economic planning law (economisch ordeningsrecht), sub legal practice area competition law (mededingingsrecht)

Based on this registration, Michel Jacobs is required to obtain ten training credits per calendar year in each registered principal legal practice area in accordance with the standards set by the Netherlands Bar.