Brussels, 27/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has adopted a new Notice on restrictions directly related and necessary to concentrations (so-called "ancillary restraints") which replaces a 1990 Notice. These restrictions are contractual agreements frequently concluded by companies in the context of a concentration, such as non-competition clauses, licence agreements or even obligations to purchase and supply. The new Notice, which comes within the general reform of the rules of competition, will lighten the work of the Commission in the sense that that latter will no longer proceed with examining "ancillary restraints" in its decisions, as it has been doing for eleven years. Instead of this examination, companies and their legal representatives will themselves have to determine whether such restraints may be covered by the merger, by a relevant block exemption, or whether they might fall under Article 81 of the Treaty on concerted agreements. The main aim of the new Notice is to provide guidelines to legal and trade circles, on the basis of earlier Commission practices and experience in this field, so as to enable them to assess whether agreements concluded in the context of a merger may be considered as "ancillary". The Commission will publish the text of this new Notice on its Internet site.