It could have become a controversial appointment in many countries, one that might have drawn criticisms about impartiality, similar to the ones that followed Fiona Scott Morton’s appointment as the EU’s chief economist this summer after it emerged that she had advised several tech giants as a consultant.

But in the Netherlands, no one appears to have batted an eyelid when a competition lawyer who had spent his entire career at the prestigious local firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, including six years as managing partner, was named as the new head of the Dutch competition authority in 2018.