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.