The South African Government publishes the energy user and energy supplier block exemptions regulations to allow for collaboration between energy users in response to electricity supply constraints

The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (MTIC) on Wednesday 24 May 2023 published the Energy Users Block Exemption and Energy Supplier Block Exemption. The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) is entitled to make regulations that are required to give effect to the purposes of the Competition Act and specifically to exempt a category of agreements or practices from Chapter 2 of the Competition Act which deals with prohibited practices, including prohibited horizontal conduct, prohibited vertical conduct and abuses of dominance. These block exemptions were first published for input during the subsequently withdrawn National State of Disaster related to energy supply. The Energy Users Block Exemption allows for collaboration between energy users to respond to the