The European Commission adopted on 7/12/2023 Guidelines on how to design sustainability agreements in the field of agriculture (‘Guidelines') using a novel exclusion from EU competition rules introduced by the recently reformed Common Agricultural Policy (‘CAP').
Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU') generally prohibits agreements between companies that restrict competition, such as those between competitors that lead to higher prices or lower quantities. However, Article 210a of Regulation 1308/2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products (‘CMO Regulation') excludes certain restrictive agreements in the agricultural sector from that prohibition, when those agreements are indispensable to achieve sustainability standards going beyond the mandatory EU or national rules.
The new Guidelines aim at clarifying how operators active in the agri-food sector can design joint sustainability initiatives in line with Article 210a.
The Guidelines will enter into force following their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Operators that have sustainability agreements already in place are invited to align them with the European Commission's Guidelines. Operators may request an opinion from the European Commission on their compatibility with EU competition rules as of 8 December 2023.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_6370
The new Guidelines can be found here:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13305-Sustainability-agreements-in-agriculture-guidelines-on-antitrust-derogation_en
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