Clifford Chance

Retail price parity: do we have European consensus at last, or will divergence continue?

13 June 2023

Sam Parry, Senior Associate, discusses the developing framework for assessing price parity clauses across Europe where the block exemption regulation is not available, recent developments (including judicial decisions) in Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) that depart somewhat from the developing consensus.

Sam Parry then discusses the approach to price parity provisions under the vertical block exemption regulation, both under the old regime (i.e., the 2010 VBER) and the new vertical block exemption regulation that came into force on 1 June 2022 (the 2022 VBER) and the discussions around price parity that fed into the final version of the 2022 VBER. He then goes on to consider the parallel conclusion of the UK Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Order (VABEO), which is the equivalent of the 2022 VBER for the UK following the expiry of the 2010 VBER, and how the VABEO departs from the 2022 VBER in its treatment of parity obligations.

This article was first published by Thomson Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ in the European Competition Law Review as " Retail price parity: do we have European consensus at last, or will divergence continue?" in (2023) 44 E.C.L.R., Issue 6 pages 260-267 and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers.

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