Thomas de Weerd
Advocaat | Partner
Languages
Dutch
English
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Thomas specialises in IT, privacy, outsourcing and intellectual property. His daily work involves advising a wide range of national and international clients on IT, privacy and intellectual property matters, technology-related transactions, outsourcing transactions, and technology contracts. He has experience as an in-house counsel for technology and internet companies. He regularly advises on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) related matters. Thomas is a board member of the Netherlands Association for Information Technology and Law and a member of the Dutch Privacy Law Association, INTA and the Licensing Executives Society (LES). Legal 500 has recognised him as a Leading Individual in the field of Information Technology.
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Leading individualLegal 500, Information Technology (2024 Edition) -
"A client states that: ‘Thomas de Weerd is a very accessible and enjoyable person to work with. He has great legal knowledge and to-the-point advice with business priorities in mind'."Legal 500, Information Technology (2024 Edition)
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“Thomas de Weerd is a safe set bet for IT and IP mandates. He sees the big picture and gives sound advice.”IAM Patent 1000, Intellectual Property (2023 Edition)
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RecommendedChambers Europe, TMT: IT & IT Outsourcing (2023 Edition)
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Leading individualLegal 500, Information technology (2023 Edition)
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“Thomas de Weerd is a scrupulous attorney who has made the IT and privacy spaces his own.”IAM Patent 1000, Intellectual Property (2022 Edition)
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“Thomas de Weerd is first of all a very pleasant person who is a good listener.”Chambers Europe, TMT: IT & IT Outsourcing (2022 Edition)
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Leading IndividualLegal 500, Information technology (2022 Edition)
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“Thomas de Weerd is very resourceful to my legal team. He has built up a lot of knowledge over the past and serves as an advisor and sparring partner.”Legal 500, Information technology (2022 Edition)
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“Thomas de Weerd is ‘very accessible and understands client needs’.”Legal 500, Information technology (2022 Edition)
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“A client describes Thomas de Weerd as a ‘seasoned lawyer and good listener’ who also ‘understands the business TMT clients operate in due to his true level of understanding of operational processes and technical aspects of products/services at hand’. The client further states that ‘this combination of experience and skills makes him a very quick thinker if it comes to out of the box, yet fit for purpose, solutions’.”Legal 500, Information technology (2022 Edition)
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RecommendedChambers Europe, TMT: IT & IT Outsourcing (2021 Edition)
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RecommendedLegal 500, Trade Marks, copyrights and design rights (2021 Edition)
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RecommendedLegal 500, Data privacy and data protection (2021 Edition)
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RecommendedLegal 500, Media and Entertainment (2021 Edition)
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Leading individualLegal 500, Information technology (2021 Edition)
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RecommendedLegal 500, Telecoms (2021 Edition)
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RecommendedLegal 500, Patents (2021 Edition)
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“Clients hail Thomas de Weerd for being a ‘very strong commercial lawyer who always tries to think like the business and provides business-focused advice.’”Chambers Europe, TMT: IT & IT Outsourcing (2020 Edition)
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“Thomas de Weerd is a very pleasant person to work with. He thinks about the business values and goals we are trying to reach and adapts the legal work to fit with those.”Legal 500, Media and Entertainment (2020 Edition)
Thomas is co-author of the book Overeenkomsten inzake Informatietechnologie (Agreements regarding Information Technology) and the editor of the chapters on Intellectual Property and Privacy in Kluwer's ‘Modellen voor de Rechtspraktijk’ (‘Templates for Legal Practice’).
Qualifications & Experience
- Grotius Academy specialisation course on Information Law
- Business Law (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
- Business Economics (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
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Advised 3i on the sale of the Weener Plastics group, producer of high-quality plastic packaging products, to US manufacturing company Silgan Holdings.
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Advised IK Partners on the acquisition of an economical majority stake in QConcepts Beheer B.V., a fast growing Dutch audit-focused specialist. Qconcepts' audit practice represents the majority of its EUR 26.1 million turnover in 2023. Qconcepts has 140 employees who are based across six Dutch offices in 's-Hertogenbosch, Rotterdam, Sittard, Arnhem, Amsterdam, Enschede and an office in Malaga, Spain.
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Advised DataExpert B.V. on the acquisition of DetACT Software from Fox-IT B.V.
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Advised SPS Commerce, Inc. on the acquisition of all business and operations of TIE Kinetix, listed on Euronext Amsterdam.
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Advised, together with lead counsel Ropes & Gray International LLP, Bridgepoint Advisers II Limited as a local counsel on its acquisition of the SK AeroSafety group, specialising in maintenance, repair, overhaul and the design and manufacture of aerospace systems and components.
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Advised in collaboration with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK), TBAuctions Netherlands B.V. on its acquisition of Epic Auctions.
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Advised Authentix Inc on the acquisition of Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé.
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Lodged a B2B complaint with the Dutch Advertising Code Committee (RCC) on behalf of Marktplaats (a classified advertising site based in the Netherlands) against Pakkie (a payment and delivery service company)
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Represented classified advertisement platform Marktplaats, seeking the transfer of the domain names <marktplaatsnederland.nl> and <marktplaatsbelgie.be>. The disputed domain names were used to operate a scam by redirecting Internet users to third-party websites and fake advertisements.
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Advised a.s.r. on the acquisition of Sweco Capital Consultants.
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Assisted H2 Equity Partners in the sale of its portfolio company Dutch Seafood Company, trading as ''Foppen'', to the listed company Hilton Food Group.
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Advised H2 Equity Partners on the sale of Brink Group. Brink has more than 100 years of expertise in the manufacturing industry. The company’s product portfolio includes fixed, detachable, retractable and next generation towbars.
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Advised Orkla with the purchase of 75% of shares in New York Pizza. New York Pizza is one of the leading pizza chains in the Netherlands.
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Advised Exact on the acquisition of Gripp, provider of SaaS business software for professional service companies.
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Advised PRO Unlimited on the acquisition of the Dutch Brainnet Group, both are vendor-neutral managed service providers (MSPs).
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Represented Agilitas Private Equity Services Limited in the acquisition of TenCate Advanced Armour Holding B.V., the global leading manufacturer of lightweight survivability solutions.
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Advised BC Partners on the acquisition of Keesing Media Group from Ergon Capital and Mediahuis.
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Assisted IK Investment Partners in the acquisition of a majority stake in You Sure Investments B.V.
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Advised ASR Nederland N.V. (a.s.r.) on the acquisition of a 50% interest from Brand New Day in Brand New Day Premiepensioeninstelling N.V. (BND PPI) and the sale of a.s.r.'s 10% interest in Brand New Day Houdstermaatschappij N.V. for a total amount of EUR 51 million.
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Advised OLA Electric on the acquisition of electric scooter company Etergo B.V.
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Advised symplr, a leading healthcare governance, risk and compliance software-as-a-service platform, on the acquisition of The Patient Safety Company (TPSC) from Main Capital Partners.
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Assisted Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co. with its agreement with NXP Semiconductors under which it will acquire all assets of NXP Semiconductors' Voice and Audio Solutions (VAS) for USD 165 million.
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Served as legal advisor to ECI Software Solutions, a leader in cloud-based business management solutions. ECI has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Netherlands-based Trivest Beheer B.V., a provider of smart vertical software solutions to the SME manufacturing sector. With this acquisition, Trivest’s nearly 3,000 customers and more than 300 employees will join ECI’s manufacturing division.
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Advised GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, on the joint venture agreement with Equinix for more than USD 1 billion to develop and operate hyperscale data centres in Europe. The joint venture will acquire two operational data centres in London and Paris and plans to futher develop data centres in Amsterdam, Frankfurt (two sites) and London. Houthoff was co-counsel to Kirkland & Ellis on this transaction.
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Advised a.s.r., a large Dutch insurance company, on the acquisition of VvAA Levensverzekeringen, the life insurance business of VvAA Groep. The life insurance portfolio comprises approximately 18,000 policies. The annual premium income is EUR 28m, and the technical provisions amount to EUR 430m. In addition to a multi-year life insurance partnership, VvAA and a.s.r. also intend to further expand the services to VvAA members.
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Assisted Exact Group B.V. with the acquisition of the construction software company Bouw7 B.V.
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Houthoff advised Sligro Food Group N.V. with the proposed acquisition of the shares in Exploitatiemaatschappij Wheere B.V. by Sligro Food Group Nederland B.V. This will include the activities of Vroegop Ruhe & Co B.V., consisting of food wholesaler De Kweker, Vroegop AGF and freight company L.A.J. Duncker.
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Houthoff – together with Sidley Austin LLP – represented Wex Inc., a leading financial technology service provider, in connection with its planned acquisition of EG Group Limited’s GO Fuel Card business. The Go Fuel Card business is headquartered in Breda, Netherlands with approximately 200,000 proprietary cards in circulation across the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
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Assisted Twence, a waste processing company that produces energy, in the acquisition of Empyro. The Empyro plant produces pyrolysis oil, green steam and electricity from biomass by polygeneration.
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Houthoff advised the shareholders (Waterland Private Equity and management) on the sale of the Infradata group to IK Investment Partners
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Represented Paypal in their acquisition of iZettle, a Swedish payment platform and supplier of mobile credit card readers for USD 2.2 billion in a successful process lead by Roschier.
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Advising the receivers of DSB Bank (the largest Dutch financial institution ever to file for bankruptcy) on the restructuring of DSB Bank's trademark and domain name portfolio.
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Successfully representing Rotterdam's Erasmus University Medical Centre, one of the largest and most authoritative scientific University Medical Centres in Europe, in summary proceedings before the Rotterdam interim injunction judge against a spin-off company about the licensing and development of software for laboratory information management and the early detection of hospital-acquired infections (HAI's).
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Succesfully representing Rotterdam's Erasmus University Medical Center, one of the largest and most authoritative scientific University Medical Centers in Europe, and Erasmus University in summary proceedings before the Rotterdam interim injunction judge against a spin-off company about the licensing and development of software for laboratory information management and the early detection of hospital-acquired infections (HAI's).
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Assisting construction multinational Volker Wessels with its global IT and cloud services purchasing agreement with Microsoft.
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Advised Balderton Capital (one of the leading technology investors in Europe) on an investment round in 3DHubs, 3D printing community portal matching demand and supply for 3D printing services.
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Advising Ohpen, an IT service provider for the financial services industry, in a cloud based investment portfolio administration outsourcing for a Dutch financial institution.
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The team advises on the handling of HR data (centralised HR databases in and outside the EU), whistle blower procedures, data breach notifications, employee internet and email codes and the transfer of personal data to countries outside the EU for various corporate activities.
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Advising several major car manufacturers and importers on the processing of big data, generated by state of the art cars, for safety and security purposes and for marketing and other commercial purposes.
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Houthoff advised a major car manufacturer on the processing of big data (including personal data, vehicle data and location data) from connected cars.
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Houthoff advised a Netherlands based insurance company on the outsourcing of the administrative handling of car insurance claims to an India-based business process outsourcing service provider.
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Houthoff advised a multinational financial services company on the outsourcing of the administrative servicing of a consumer mortgage portfolio to a Netherlands-based financial services provider.
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Advising eBay / Marktplaats on the selection of its payment service provider.
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Houthoff advised the bankruptcy trustees of DSB Bank on the outsourcing of its IT-department to IT-service provider SLTN.
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Advising Ohpen, a Fintech company which offers a mutual funds and savings account platform as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) solution, on outsourcing agreements with two major Dutch financial institutions.
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Advising various start-ups on FinTech regulatory compliance aspects such as payment services, electronic money, consumer credit, bitcoin regulation.
