Brussels issues industry standards rules

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).

European Commission: Press Release: IP/10/1702: Competition: Commission adopts revised competition rules on horizontal co-operation agreements http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/1702&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

ESO: Background information: Competition: Commission consults on review of rules applicable to horizontal co-operation agreements http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-competition-commission-consults-on-review-of-rules-applicable-to-horizontal-co-operation-agreements/

European Commission: DG Competition: Horizontal competition agreements http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/legislation/horizontal.html

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