On Wednesday 25 February, the European Commission and the United Kingdom signed an EU-UK Competition Cooperation Agreement, establishing a framework for cooperation between the European Commission and the competition authorities of the EU Member States and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
This is the first EU-UK agreement entirely devoted to competition cooperation since the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, according to a press release.
The EU and the UK will inform each other of significant antitrust and merger investigations and coordinate their efforts where necessary. The agreement stipulates the obligation of the competition authorities to protect the confidentiality of the information that is shared. The consent of the companies providing the confidential information will continue to be required before it is shared between competition authorities.
The Council of the EU will have to adopt a decision to conclude the agreement and the European Parliament will have to give its consent.
At a joint press briefing held with Peter Kyle, UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, the European Commission Vice-President Teresa Ribeira welcomed the agreement: “Together, we are strengthening our ability to promote favourite and more efficient markets”.
“The Commission took many decisions that related to the British market and work closely with the UK authorities in each of them. Following Brexit, we continue our cooperation in an informal manner”, she added.
“The agreement makes clear that we should always check if there are sensitive aspects or important points in an investigation respecting the independence and legal framework of each jurisdiction. It is also unique because this agreement is the first agreement of its kind that brings together not only the Commission, but the national competition authorities in the European Union”. Ratification procedures are therefore required “on both sides of the Channel”.
This agreement “will lead to better information sharing, more coordinated investigations, and it will let us stop harmful mergers that are bad for consumers and bad for markets as well. This is an agreement that promotes healthy competition [and] drives growth across our markets”, commented the British Minister, who stated he was “excited about the benefits that it will bring for British businesses and European businesses too”.
The EU has competition cooperation agreements with the United States (1991), Canada (1999), Japan (2003), South Korea (2009) and Switzerland (2013). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)