New Horizontal Block Exemptions and Guidelines Adopted

The European Commission has adopted revised Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations on research and development agreements and specialisation agreements, as well as revised Horizontal Guidelines. This follows a thorough review of the existent rules.

The aim is to provide businesses, as well as their advisors, with clearer and updated guidance in order to assist with the self-assessment of horizontal agreements – that is agreements with competitors – with the competition rules. The Block Exemptions will enter into force on 1 July 2023.

The revised Guidelines notably contain reference to recent case law as well as take into account current business and legal practices, and thus for instance include sections on telecomms infrastructure agreements, updated sections on information exchange, a new section on bidding consortia, and updates to the sections on standardisation agreements and purchasing agreements.