30/05/2008 (Agence Europe) -An assessment report by the European Commission has concluded that competition is healthy in the automotive sector. The report welcomes the category exemption rules (1400/2002), which exempt the sector from certain elements of the general regime applicable to vertical agreements. The Commission acknowledges, however, that the improvement of inter-brand competition is mainly due to factors other than the regulation, such as production over-capacity, technological innovation and closer integration of the markets. The report also stresses the fact that there are a number of potentially useful revisions which could be made to the current ruling, particularly to simplify its application. The report can be consulted at: http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/sectors/motor_vehicles/news.html (C.D.)