Have there been any successful follow-on or stand alone civil damages claims for cartel conduct?
Private damage claims are becoming more prominent in the Netherlands, although frequently civil proceedings end in settlement and are not published. Probably, the most well known settlement appeared in the Dutch construction sector where a large number of construction companies were fined for bid rigging by the NMa. In October 2005, the Ministers for housing and transport announced final agreement on the terms of settlement involving around 1,000 civil claims brought by central, regional and local government and other agencies against a large number of construction companies for bid rigging in The Netherlands. The companies would pay out €50 million to the authorities plus €21 million into a fund for the professionalisation of the construction sector. In return, the government agencies would drop (individual) civil claims for bid rigging in the period from 1998 to January 2003. A number of civil cases were not covered by this agreement, such as a claim by the Dutch Airport Schiphol. In
