Safe Harbour

Under EU law (specifically article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union), there is a general ban on agreements and practices that might affect trade between EU member states and which might prevent, restrict or distort competition within the internal market. Article 101 provides a list of examples of such prohibited agreements, including price-fixing agreements, market-sharing arrangements and agreements to limit or control levels of production (all of which can loosely be described as cartel-type activities), as well as contracts which impose supplementary obligations on parties that have no connection to the contract (that is, tie-in arrangements).