Distributor, Agent Or Both? The Commission's Working Paper On "Dual Role" Agents

As mentioned previously (for example here), the European Commission is currently reviewing the Vertical Agreements Block Exemption ("VABE") and corresponding Vertical Guidelines. In response to a public consultation on VABE, interested parties requested further clarity on how competition law applies to undertakings that act as both distributor and agent to the same supplier.

To that end, the Commission recently published a Working Paper setting out the current guidelines on so-called "dual role" agents. The Paper is limited in scope; it focusses on markets comprising differentiated products with distinct characteristics that can be separated into those that are covered by an agency agreement and those that are distributed independently. It does not discuss situations where the dual role agent is an online platform which is currently a key topic in ongoing investigations such as that into Amazon in connection with its use of data obtained from its Marketplace. It