The EU Commission proposes for public comment its new competitor cooperation guidelines which are tougher on information sharing but provide scope for sustainability agreements

The European Commission (Commission) is accepting public comment on its proposed revisions to European Union regulations and guidance on common competitor cooperation arrangements, which are due to expire on 31 December 2022. Cooperation agreements among existing or potential competitors (i.e., horizontal cooperation agreements) include those regarding joint research and development (R&D), joint purchasing, joint production and commercialisation, information exchange and bidding consortia. The revised horizontals framework (the revised Guidelines) [1] provides further guidance on how it will assess joint purchasing and information exchanges and includes employee wage-fixing as an illegal practice violating EU competition law. It also discusses what it will consider beneficial