The EU Commission issues new guidelines on horizontal co-operation agreements focusing on information exchanges under Art. 101 TFEU

Information Exchange and Cartels – Dangerous Liaisons?* Are information exchanges really = cartels under EU competition law? The issue has triggered many discussions on the blog lately. I just thought I’d post my own ruminations on this. The Guidelines do not really say that information exchanges are cartels. Let’s take a close look. There are four references to cartels in the guidelines that concern information exchanges. The first one, which is general in scope, can be found at §9 and expressly says the contrary: “Although these guidelines contain certain references to cartels, they are not intended to give any guidance as to what does and does not constitute a cartel as defined by the