On 8 March 2019, within a month after the application was filed, the NCC issued its first judgment. The NCC Court in Summary Proceedings granted permission to the applicant/security agent (based in Ireland) for pledged shares in a Dutch company to be sold and transferred to one of the pledgor’s creditors (Crossbow, based in Amsterdam). 
The Court ruled that it had jurisdiction under articles 25(1) and 26(1) of the Brussels Regulation (recast) (1215/2012) and - as to the interested party domiciled in Switzerland - under article 24 of the Lugano Convention. All other legal requirements for proceedings to be in English before the NCC were met.
The material issue was whether the price the buyer (Crossbow) was willing to pay for the shares was right. Elavon referred to a valuation report. The report and its findings were uncontested. The Court agreed that the contemplated transaction would deliver the highest value for the pledged shares and facilitate the business’s recovery. Accordingly, the Court granted permission for the shares to be sold and transferred to Crossbow under the conditions as described in the proposed Share Purchase Agreement.
The judgment is available on www.ncc.gov.nl (see: Judgment List).

After NCC had given the judgment in this case, the lawyers representing the parties participated in a survey. The results were highly favourable about the court’s handling of the case. “Especially the professionalism, speed, quality of the judge and quality of the decision were impressive”, Teun Struycken, lawyer for Crossbow, said. His colleague, Barbara Rumora-Scheltema, remarked: “The Court was responsive, flexible and quick. The judge had obviously read the documents and (in my view successfully) directed the debate to address only the relevant issues. The - for Dutch standards - novel use of the first person in the decision was quite convincing.”

Yes. The only requirement is that it must be a "civil or commercial matter". This refers to civil law in a broad sense, as opposed to criminal charges or administrative proceedings. These matters may be contractual disputes, claims in tort, property disputes, or intellectual property, technology, construction or corporate matters. The only exception is where the subject matter is within the exclusive jurisdiction of another Dutch court (such as patent or maritime disputes) or to the Subdistrict Court (contractual disputes regarding employment/labour, landlord/tenant or consumer agreements). So IP cases regarding copyright or trademark infringement can be brought before the NCC, including summary proceedings seeking emergency relief.

If the court directs that a record be drawn up of the hearing, the court will generally prepare the record as is commonly done in the Dutch courts. The court record is not a verbatim report (prepared by a court reporter), but a concise summary of what was said and done at the hearing.
However, the parties are free to instruct a court reporter to prepare a verbatim transcript of what is said at the hearing, at their own expense, in line with international practice. This applies to all hearings, including hearings for the examination of witnesses or experts. The parties must notify the court of these arrangements at least 10 days prior to the hearing.
After the hearing, the court reporter submits a copy of the verbatim transcript to the court and the parties. Where a verbatim transcript is prepared, the court may direct that in the court record reference will be made to the transcript without any further details on what was said and done at the hearing.

We’ll keep you posted. The next Update is scheduled for May.
If you have any questions, please contact us at NCC@rechtspraak.nl. Or visit our website www.ncc.gov.nl.

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