Introduction
In May 2022, the European Commission (EC) adopted the new
Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (New VBER) and Vertical
Guidelines which were implemented from 1 June 2022.
Agreements between firms operating at different levels of the
supply chain are referred to as “vertical agreements”.
Competition regulators across the world typically penalise vertical
agreements only if they cause an adverse effect on the state of
competition in the market.
The EC allows certain vertical agreements to escape competitive
scrutiny by providing them safe harbour under the previous Vertical
Block Exemption Regulations (VBER), which expired on 31 May 2022.
Typically, the VBER allowed vertical agreements to avoid
competitive scrutiny when the parties to an agreement individually
had a market share of less than 30%.
