Clifford Chance
The New EU and UK Competition Regimes for Horizontal Cooperation Agreements
15 June 2023
The European Commission has issued its final amended texts of its Horizontal Guidelines and the Block Exemption Regulations relating to Research & Development and Specialisation which deal with the application of the EU prohibition on anticompetitive agreements to arrangements between actual or potential competitors. These revised texts will introduce a number of changes and clarifications to the EU regime for horizontal agreements when they enter into force on 1 July 2023.
Following the UK's departure from the EU, the UK Government has issued its own block exemptions and has published its own draft Guidance on Horizontal Agreements earlier this year, which differs from its EU equivalent rules in certain material respects.
