The EU Commission publishes new competition rules for vertical agreements

Following a comprehensive review and consultation process, the new revised EU vertical agreements block exemption Regulation (VBER) and Guidelines have now been published and will come into force on 1 June 2022. The Commission’s stated objectives of the review process were to adjust the safe harbour under the VBER to eliminate false positives (where the previous rules were considered too permissive) and reduce false negatives (where the previous rules were seen as too restrictive), and to provide simpler, clearer and up-to-date rules and guidance for businesses in order to assess their agreements for compliance with the competition rules, in particular in light of the growth of online sales and online platforms. As a result, the new VBER and Guidelines contain substantial changes that