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Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance

Briefings

The proposed reforms of the EU competition regime for distribution arrangements

4 August 2021

The European Commission (the Commission) has launched a consultation which sets out its plans to update the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER), which provides a widely-applicable safe harbour for distribution arrangements from the EU prohibition on anticompetitive agreements.

The proposed changes reflect the significant changes in market dynamics since the VBER was last updated in 2010. For example, the growth of online sales in recent years has resulted in proposals to give suppliers more freedom to support physical sales channels, and the increased use of "dual distribution" models - where suppliers compete with their distributors in certain sales channels - has also prompted plans to change the treatment of such arrangements. Various other changes would allow suppliers more flexibility to restrict their distributors from selling to certain territories or customer groups.
 

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