December 14, 2010
On December 14th, the European Commission issued its final revised rules on horizontal co-operation agreements (“Horizontal Guidelines”).
The Horizontal Guidelines, which address key forms of collaboration between competitors including information exchanges, standardization agreements and research and development, are the European parallel of the joint U.S. FTC/DoJ Antitrust Guidelines for Collaboration Among Competitors and the recently finalized Canadian Competition Bureau’s Competitor Collaboration Guidelines (finalized by the Bureau in 2009).
In its News Release, the Commission stated:
“The European Commission has revised its rules for the assessment of co-operation agreements between competitors, so called horizontal co-operation agreements. As it is often vital for companies to work together to achieve synergies, there exist a vast number of horizontal co-operation agreements in many industries. The texts update and further clarify the application of competition rules in this area so that companies can better assess whether their co-operation agreements are in line with those rules. Modifications concern mainly the areas of standardisation, information exchange, and research and development (R&D).”
For a copy of the Horizontal Guidelines see: Guidelines on the applicability of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to horizontal co-operation agreements.
____________________
SERVICES AND CONTACT
I am a Toronto competition and advertising lawyer offering business and individual clients efficient and strategic advice in relation to competition/antitrust, advertising, Internet and new media law and contest law. I also offer competition and regulatory law compliance, education and policy services to companies, trade and professional associations and government agencies.
My experience includes advising clients in Toronto, Canada and the US on the application of Canadian competition and regulatory laws and I have worked on hundreds of domestic and cross-border competition, advertising and marketing, promotional contest (sweepstakes), conspiracy (cartel), abuse of dominance, compliance, refusal to deal, pricing and distribution, Investment Canada Act and merger matters. For more information about my competition and advertising law services see: competition law services.
To contact me about a potential legal matter, see: contact
For more regulatory law updates follow me on Twitter: @CanadaAttorney
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
