Brussels, 16/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has changed its rules on “horizontal' cooperation agreements” among competing companies. It is often crucial for companies to be able to work together and there are many such agreements in various industries. The new Commission rules update and clarify competition rules in this domain to help companies see whether their cooperation rules comply with EU rules. The amendments cover standardisation, exchange of information and R&D.
On Tuesday 14 December, the European Commission unveiled a series of revised guidelines and two regulations setting out how competitors can cooperate without breaking EU competition rules. The guidelines describe the most frequently found cooperation agreements for R&D, manufacturing, purchasing, marketing, standardisation, standard conditions and exchange of information. The two regulations exempt from the competition rules various R&D, specialisation and production agreements that are unlikely to cause competition concerns. Two of the main areas of change are the new chapter in the guidelines on exchange of information and the hugely amended chapter on standardisation agreements.
The guidelines come into force once they have been published in the EU Official Journal in the next few days. The two regulations come into force on 1 January 2011, but have a two year transition period where the previous regulations will remain in force for agreements that meet the old regulations but which do not comply with the revised regulations. The guidelines and regulations can be found at: ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/legislation/horizontal.html. (O.L./transl.fl)