Wouters v. Algemene Raad de Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten

J. C. J. Wouters (plaintiff), an attorney from the Netherlands, became a partner in the tax-consulting firm Arthur Andersen & Co. Belastingadviseurs (Andersen). Later, Wouters informed the Rotterdam Bar that he intended to practice law as part of Andersen, which also provided accounting services. The Supervisory Board of the Rotterdam Bar (board) (defendant) found that Andersen was a professional partnership between members of the bar and members of the accounting profession and thus in violation of Article 4 of the Regulation on Joint Professional Activity, which prohibited professional partnerships between lawyers and accountants. The purpose of Article 4 was to ensure that attorneys did not become concentrated in a small number of companies like in the accounting profession, in which most providers worked for a handful of large partnerships. In enacting this prohibition, the Netherlands’ College of Delegates reasoned that it was necessary to ensure that the legal profession maintain a large number of independent operators in the market to prevent rampant conflicts of interest. Wouters challenged the board’s decision before the Netherlands Council of State (council), arguing, among other things, that the prohibition against multidisciplinary partnerships between lawyers and accountants violated the Treaty Establishing the European Community (EC treaty) by restricting competition and freedom of association. The council referred these questions to the European Union Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.