On Wednesday 31 May, the European Commission adopted a revision of the Block Exemption Regulations (BER) applicable to horizontal agreements between undertakings with regard to research and development (R&D) agreements and specialisation agreements.
These two BERs applicable to horizontal agreements exempt, under certain conditions, R&D-related agreements and specialisation agreements from the prohibition on anti-competition agreements or practices laid down in Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This is, in particular, to encourage European initiatives in these areas.
The new rules are intended to update and clarify certain provisions and the procedures for implementing them, while also introducing greater flexibility.
In particular, the new texts extend the scope of the BER to include more types of production agreements. The new rules will also allow greater flexibility in calculating market shares when applying the BERs.
The European Commission has stressed that the new rules also place a greater emphasis on protecting innovation.
At the same time, the Commission has published guidelines on horizontal restrictions.
These guidelines include a new chapter on sustainability agreements. The chapter specifies that anti-competition rules do not prevent agreements between competitors that are pursuing a sustainability objective. The text provides a framework for the parties to self-assess the level of compatibility of their joint sustainable development initiatives with European competition rules.
The guidelines also introduce a new section on mobile telecommunications infrastructure sharing agreements.
The chapter on sharing information has been thoroughly revised. It does not contain a “safe harbour” because of the significant impact that exchanges of information can have on competition. However, it does contain a section setting out the measures that companies and associations can take to minimise the risk of infringing European competition rules.
The new rules will come into force on 1 July 2023.
The guidelines will come into force following their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Link to the legislation: https://aeur.eu/f/76m
Link to the guidelines: https://aeur.eu/f/76p (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)