Key Guidelines In Light Of The New EU Horizontal Guidelines

Information exchange has always been a tricky area within which to undertake a competitive assessment. It is very fact-specific and whether or not exchanges fall foul of the competition rules may depend on a range of different factors, including: whether the parties are actual or potential competitors; the purpose of the exchanges; the context in which the exchanges take place; the type of data being exchanged; the age of the data; whether it is useful for current and future strategic decision-making; whether it is publicly available.

Information exchanges can occur in various forms, including bilateral or multilateral exchanges. These exchanges can be direct or indirect, involving a third party like a service provider. Exchanges can also be one-way and can occur between parties operating at different levels of the supply chain (vertical), as well as between parties who may have a supplier-customer relationship at one level but are competitors at another