New EU Antitrust Guidelines For Food Agri Sustainability Agreements

On 10 January 2023, the European Commission (Commission) published draft guidelines on the application of a new EU antitrust exemption for sustainability agreements involving producers of agricultural products (the draft Guidelines). Article 210a of Regulation (EU) 1308/2013 (CMO Regulation) exempts restrictions of competition in agreements in the agriculture sector that are indispensable to achieving sustainability standards higher than EU or national mandatory standards. Article 210a was introduced in the CMO Regulation in 2021 and entered into effect in early 2022.

The draft Guidelines complement the Commission's work on the assessment of sustainability agreements under Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU), which will be addressed in guidelines to be finalized in the coming months (the Horizontal Guidelines). A number of other national antitrust authorities – including the Austrian, Dutch, Japanese and UK authorities -- are also working