16. Vertical agreements

Author(s):  
Richard Whish ◽  
David Bailey

This chapter examines the application of Article 101 TFEU and the Chapter I prohibition in the UK Competition Act 1998 to vertical agreements. The chapter begins by briefly describing the distribution chain, followed by sections on how the law applies to vertical integration and agency agreements. It discusses the competition policy considerations raised by vertical agreements, including the challenges presented by the emergence of online commerce. It explains the application of Article 101 to various vertical agreements while considering the case law of the EU Courts and the position of the Commission in its Guidelines on Vertical Restraints. The chapter goes on to discuss the provisions of Regulation 330/2010, the block exemption for vertical agreements; and the application of Article 101(3) to vertical agreements. The chapter then contains sections on Regulation 461/2010 on motor vehicle distribution and on sub-contracting agreements. Finally, it looks at the position in UK law.

2021 ◽  
pp. 648-714
Author(s):  
Richard Whish ◽  
David Bailey

This chapter examines the application of Article 101 TFEU and the Chapter I prohibition in the UK Competition Act 1998 to distribution agreements. The chapter begins with a discussion of distribution chains in the modern economy, looking at the various ways in which producers market their goods or services to consumers; these have been enormously enhanced by the emergence of the digital economy. This is followed by sections on how the law applies to producers carrying on their own distribution function (‘vertical integration’), commercial agency and vertical sub-contracting relationships. It discusses the competition policy considerations raised by distribution agreements, and explains the application of Article 101 to various different types of distribution agreements. This is followed by a section on the provisions of Regulation 330/2010, the block exemption for distribution agreements, and the individual application of Article 101(3) to distribution agreements. The chapter then contains sections on Regulation 461/2010 on motor vehicle distribution. Finally, it deals with the application of the Chapter I prohibition in the UK Competition Act 1998 to distribution agreements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-129
Author(s):  
Patrick F. Todd

After Brexit, the United Kingdom is unlikely to continue pursuing integration with other Member States of the European Union, including through competition policy. As a result, the time is ripe to reconsider the role of the single market imperative in competition law, in particular in relation to vertical restraints where the goal of market integration plays a pivotal role. This article shows that recent European vertical restraints decisions and case law, in particular concerning territorial and online restraints, have been motivated in whole or in part by the single market imperative (SMI). It then examines how the law in the UK might follow a different path post-Brexit, taking the Ping case as an example. However, a similar change is not likely to be forthcoming in relation to the law governing pricing restraints, which are not obviously linked to the SMI and which have been the subject of much enforcement in the UK both before and during the UK's membership of the EU.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hasan Alissa

This thesis examines the EU and UK regulation in respect of motor insurance law, including the Motor Vehicle Insurance Directives (MVID), the Road Traffic Acts 1930 and 1988, the Uninsured Drivers’ Agreements and the Untraced Drivers’ Agreements. It provides a critical assessment of the compatibility of national laws with their EU source/parent laws – in both the substantive elements of the laws and the administrative and procedural rules under which they operate, and, given the significance of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the impact of Brexit is considered. The study will ably demonstrate the deficiencies in the UK’s transposition of the law and will argue, given the supporting case law and the underlying rationale for the development of the Directives – the free movement principles of people and goods, that an rationale can be presented that the offending aspects of the national law should be disapplied. It is this aspect of the work which is unique and offers a consistent and certain future for motor vehicle insurance law and the rights of third-party victims in the UK.


Author(s):  
Alison Jones ◽  
Brenda Sufrin ◽  
Niamh Dunne

This chapter, which discusses EU competition policy towards vertical agreements, begins by outlining the choices available to a supplier when deciding how best to market and sell its products or services to customers, and the impact that the competition rules may have on a supplier's choice, including the treatment of agency agreements. It then discusses the EU approach to vertical agreements, in the light of the Commission’s Verticals Guidelines of 2010, including exclusive dealing, single branding, franchising andselective distribution agreements, and the review of the 2010 regime. It considers the importance in EU law of parallel trade between Member States and how this has influenced policy towards vertical restraints. It analyses the application of Article 101(1) and Article 101(3) to vertical agreements, including the Verticals block exemption of 2010; sub-contracting agreements; and the possible application of Article 102 to distribution agreements.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-52
Author(s):  
Marco Galimberti

Twenty years after its drafting and more than one decade after its entry into force, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union has ceased to be part of British law as a consequence of Brexit. Looking into this issue raised by the UK withdrawal from the European Union, the essay sheds some light on the legal status and impact of the EU Bill of Rights in the British legal order. Against this background, the article detects a connection between the UK Supreme Court’s case law and the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the direct effect of the Charter. From this perspective, the analysis highlights the implications of the UK departure from the Charter and disentanglement from the Luxembourg case law, thus arguing that they may weaken the standards of fundamental rights protection.


Author(s):  
Gaga Gabrichidze

This chapter scrutinizes perception of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) by the Georgian courts and the Georgian Competition Agency. With the conclusion of the Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia in 2014, the Georgian legal system undoubtedly became more closely connected with EU law. Hence, approximation commitments under the Association Agreement made the case law of the CJEU of much more relevance for the Georgian courts and administrative authorities. However, in the wake of intensification of EU–Georgia relations, the impact of CJEU case law can be identified even in the time before conclusion of the Association Agreement. Analysis shows that several factors play a role with regard to the extent and frequency of mentioning CJEU case law in the decisions of the Georgian courts and Competition Agency. Judges refer to case law of the CJEU with the aim of either strengthening their own arguments or using it as a source of interpretation. Taking into consideration the ‘European’ roots of Georgia’s competition policy, the Competition Agency regards the case law of the CJEU as having a very important interpretative value for closing ‘gaps’ in the law.


2021 ◽  
pp. 79-112
Author(s):  
Renato Nazzini

Chapter 4 deals with exclusionary abuses under the Competition Act 1998, covering both public and private enforcement cases. The analysis concerns the approach to dominance as well as tests for abuse, focusing on retroactive rebates and bundled discounts, exclusion in multi-market settings, exclusivity, most favoured nation and equivalent clauses, discrimination, and exclusionary abuses in the pharmaceutical sector. This chapter argues that, in its second decade, modern UK competition law continued a trend that was already clear in the first decade: the prohibition of abuse of dominance is applied in a more economically robust and commercially reasonable way than it is by the EU institutions - the Commission and the EU courts - and in certain other Member States. The chapter notes that the third decade of the Competition Act 1998 will see the UK develop its competition policy free from the constraints of EU law and may allow for some divergence in the approach to exclusionary abuses in the future.


2021 ◽  
pp. 349-408
Author(s):  
Richard Whish ◽  
David Bailey

This chapter describes the substantive provisions of the Competition Act 1998 in the UK. The focus of attention in this chapter is the ‘Chapter I prohibition’, which prohibits anti-competitive agreements, and the ‘Chapter II prohibition’, which prohibits the abuse of a dominant position. The Chapter I and II prohibitions are closely modelled upon Articles 101 and 102 TFEU, although they are by no means identical in every respect. Following an overview of the Competition Act, and the changes introduced as a result of Brexit, it considers in turn the decisional practice and case-law under the Chapter I and Chapter II prohibitions. It then discusses the duty in section 60A of the Competition Act that sets out the principles to be applied in determining questions that arise in relation to competition within the UK with effect from 1 January 2021. The chapter also contains a table of all the decisions under the Competition Act to have been published on the website of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) since the ninth edition of the book in December 2017.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-88
Author(s):  
Noel Beale ◽  
Paschalis Lois

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement broadly sets out the nature of the relationship contemplated between UK and EU competition law and policy following Brexit. The question is whether the UK will capitalize on its newfound discretion to deviate its competition policy from the EU in the future. This article considers some of the potential new directions that might be taken within the UK's competition law landscape, specifically in relation to merger control, antitrust and subsidy control. It explores some of the problems and opportunities created in the wake of Brexit, as well as the legal and practical ramifications of future divergences between UK and EU competition policy. Furthermore, it considers how the Competition and Markets Authority may fare in enforcing new policy, as well as its potential interactions with regimes both within and outside the EU.


Author(s):  
Abbe Brown ◽  
Smita Kheria ◽  
Jane Cornwell ◽  
Marta Iljadica

This chapter discusses intellectual property enforcement and remedies available to an IP right holder in the event of an infringement of a right. It considers the UK rules on liability for groundless threats of infringement, including recent UK legislative developments in this field. It goes on to consider a range of interim remedies (including interim injunctions) and final remedies (including injunctions, intermediary injunctions, publicity orders, damages, and accounts of profits), all in the context of the EU IP Enforcement Directive and recent Court of Justice and UK case law developments. It also reviews criminal IP enforcement and enforcement considerations arising at an international level under TRIPS.


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