On Dec. 14, 2010, the European Commission (EC) published revised
rules for the assessment of cooperation agreements between
competitors. The texts include two "block exemptions"
(safe harbor rules) covering certain specialization agreements, and
research and development (R&D) agreements, as well as very
important general guidelines. The latter provide a framework for
the EU competition law analysis of the most common forms of
horizontal cooperation agreements, including those concerning
R&D, production, purchasing, commercialization,
standardization, standard terms and information exchange.
The R&D block exemption has been, in the words of the EC,
"considerably extended" so as "to [facilitate]
innovation in Europe." The two most noteworthy changes in the
guidelines are a new chapter on the difficult issue of information
exchange, and substantial changes to the chapter on standardization
agreements. This set of rules is important to any company which has
or proposes
