The new EU Specialisation Block Exemption Regulation and Horizontal Guidelines – Key aspects for production agreements
- 24/08/2023
- News
On 1 July 2023, the European Commission’s new package on horizontal agreements entered into force, comprising revised Block Exemption Regulations on Research and Development Agreements and Specialisation Agreements and revised Guidelines on horizontal cooperation agreements. The new Block Exemption Regulations and Horizontal Guidelines replaced the existing equivalent instruments dating from 2010/2011.
The latest in our series of alerts on the Commission’s horizontal reforms (see our other alerts here and here) looks at production agreements. Widely used in industry, these types of arrangements are among the types of horizontal agreements (ie agreements between parties at the same level of the production chain) that have been attracting antitrust scrutiny. Although the Commission’s approach has not changed materially, the new rules provide slightly more flexibility and clearer guidance.
Our alert outlines the applicable EU rules and highlights the key changes made by the Commission’s new package. It also considers the comparable approach under UK law.
