European Competition Law provides a wide-ranging review of the European rules relating to competition: restrictive agreements, abuse of a dominant position, impact of intellectual property rights, procedure, merger control, State aid.

European Competition Law

Before Regulation No 2790/1999 was adopted, exclusive purchase agreements were covered by Block Exemption Regulation (BER) No 1984/83 of 22 June 1983. That regulation concerned agreements “to which only two undertakings are party and whereby one party, the reseller, agrees with the other, the supplier, to purchase certain goods specified in the agreement for resale only from the supplier or from a …

Block exemption

Before Regulation No 2790/1999 was adopted, exclusive purchase agreements were covered by Block Exemption Regulation (BER) No 1984/83 of 22 June 1983. That regulation concerned agreements “to which only two undertakings are party and whereby one party, the reseller, agrees with the other, the supplier, to purchase certain goods specified in the agreement for resale only from the supplier or from a connected undertaking or from another undertaking which the supplier has entrusted with the sale of his goods”. The purchase exclusivity could only be exempted on condition that it was limited to five years. The regulation also contained special provisions relating to service-stations and beer supply contracts. For beer contracts the duration of agreements could vary according to the product concerned  (ten years for the supply of certain beers; five years for certain beers and certain other drinks). Purchase exclusivity for service-stations could not exceed ten years .

Regulation No 2790/1999 and the guidelines pertaining to it put an end to those specific provisions. The new rules govern all agreements between undertakings at different levels of the production and distribution chain, relating to the conditions under which the parties may purchase, sell or resell certain goods or services.

Regulation No 2022/720 does not expressly concern exclusive purchase arrangements. They are covered by the non-compete obligations under Article 1 and defined as, “any direct or indirect obligation causing the buyer not to manufacture, purchase, sell or resell goods or services which compete with the contract goods or services, or any direct or indirect obligation on the buyer to purchase from the supplier or from another undertaking designated by the supplier more than 80% of the buyer's total purchases of the contract goods or services and their substitutes on the relevant market, calculated on the basis of the value of its purchases in the preceding calendar year”.

Non-compete obligations can be direct or indirect. They can take the form of a prohibition on distributors from buying competing products or of an exclusive purchase obligation, or conversely, they can be in the form of a prohibition on the supplier from doing business with the distributor's competitors. The duration of such obligations is limited to five years. Obligations the duration of which is indefinite or exceeds five years are not covered by the block exemption regulation (Guidelines on vertical restraints, at pt 248) . However, since the entry into force of Regulation No 2022/720, non-compete obligations that are tacitly renewable beyond five years can benefit from the block exemption, provided that the buyer can effectively renegotiate or terminate the vertical agreement containing the obligation, with reasonable notice and at reasonable cost, in order to be able to effectively switch suppliers at the end of the five-year period . A limit of the duration is, on the other hand, not required when the buyer resells the goods or services from premises or land of which the supplier is the owner or tenant, provided that the duration of the clause does not exceed that of the occupation of the premises. Beer purchase contracts are in this category.

The block exemption under Regulation No 1984/83 did not apply to beer supply agreements which contain special provisions depending on type of beer and enabling brewers to unilaterally extend the scope of the exclusive purchase obligation: Commission Decision No 1999/230/EC of 24 February 1999, Whitbread, LawLex200500004733JBJ; No 1999/473/EC of 16 June 1999, Bass, LawLex200500005273JBJ, No 1999/474/EC of 16 June 1999, Scottish and Newcastle, LawLex200400002630JBJ; Case T-131/99 Shaw and Falla v Commission [2002] ECR II-2023, LawLex200500004881JBJ; Case T-231-99 Joynson v Commission [2002] ECR II-2085, LawLex200500004954JBJ.

Case C-39/92 Petrogal v Correia, Simões & Companhia and Correia, Sousa & Crisóstomo [1993] ECR I-5659, LawLex200500004928JBJ.

Commission Decision No 79/934/EEC of 5 September 1979, BP Kemi - DDSF, LawLex200400002404JBJ: an exclusive purchase agreement with a six-year duration is all the more restrictive where it is between the number-one supplier and the number-one purchaser on a market on which competition appears to be structurally weak; No 93/406/EEC of 23 December 1992, Langnese-Iglo GmbH, LawLex200500004811JBJ, Case C-39/92 Petrogal v Correia, Simões & Companhia and Correia, Sousa & Crisóstomo [1993] ECR I-5659, LawLex200500004928JBJ: A service-station agreement whose duration is unspecified or of more than ten years shall qualify for the exemption provided for in Regulation No 1984/83 (replaced by Regulation No 310/2010 of 20 April 2010) where the agreement was signed prior to the date of accession of the Member States concerned and is corrected before the expiry of the regulation. 

Guidelines on vertical restraints, at pt 248; see also under previous regulations, which treated a tacitly renewable obligation as an obligation of indefinite duration, which is prohibited: Commission Decision No 93/405/EEC of 23 December 1992, Schöller Lebensmittel GmbH Co. KG, LawLex200500004818JBJ; Case T-7/93 Langnese-Iglo v Commission [1995] ECR II-1533, LawLex200400003648JBJ; Cases T-9/93 and T-7/93 Schöller v Commission [1995] ECR II-1611, LawLex200400003649JBJ.

European Competition Law

110. Block exemption

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

110. Block exemption

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise