Standard Setting - The European Commission's New Approach

One of the major projects undertaken by the antitrust and mergers policy and scrutiny unit in DG Comp over the last 12 months was the review of the present rules on co-operation between competitors. Currently, guidance on such co-operation can be found in two block exemption regulations (on research and development agreements and on specialisation agreements respectively), as well as in the accompanying horizontal guidelines. Following several Commission cases and Community court judgments in this area, and faced with the imminent expiry of the block exemptions, in May 2010 the Commission published two updated block exemption regulations and draft horizontal co-operation guidelines. Following a consultation period that closed in June last year, the Commission adopted final versions of the block exemption regulations and the accompanying guidelines (Guidelines) in December 2010. The regulations came into force (with a two-year transitional period) on 1 January 2011,