Press Release:Competition policy: new Notice on agreements of minor importance (de minimis Notice)

The European Commission adopted a new Notice on agreements of minor importance which do not appreciably restrict competition under Article 81 (1) of the EC Treaty ('de minimis Notice') on 7 January 2002. The new Notice replaces the previous Notice of 1997. The revision of the 'de minimis' notice is part of the Commission's review of the EC competition rules. By defining when agreements between companies are not prohibited by the Treaty, the Notice will reduce the compliance burden for companies, especially smaller companies. At the same time the Commission will be better able to avoid examining cases which have no interest from a competition policy point of view and will thus be able to concentrate on more problematic agreements.

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/legislation/deminimis.html http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/legislation/deminimis.html

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