Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

Restrictive agreements are defined as agreements between undertakings or any decision by an association of undertakings and any concerted practice between undertakings which have as their object or effect the prevention, the restriction or the distortion of competition in Malta. The prohibition applies to both horizontal and vertical agreements and restrictions on both inter and intra brand compet …

The prohibition

Restrictive agreements are defined as agreements between undertakings or any decision by an association of undertakings and any concerted practice between undertakings which have as their object or effect the prevention, the restriction or the distortion of competition in Malta. The prohibition applies to both horizontal and vertical agreements and restrictions on both inter and intra brand competition.

Section 5(1) of the Competition Act sets out a list of prohibited practices, including agreements that:

- directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices or other trading agreements or;

- limit or control production, markets, technical development or investment or;

- share markets or other supply sources or;

- impose the application of dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other parties outside such agreement, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage or;

- make the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary conditions, which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.

Pursuant to Section 5(2) of the Competition Act, agreements or decisions prohibited in accordance with Section 5(1) that restrict competition are considered ipso jure null and unenforceable.

Section 6(1) of the Competition Act provides that certain agreements having only a negligible or minimal effect on competition, i.e. agreements of minor importance, are not considered as coming within the scope of the prohibition. There are no stated thresholds. Pursuant to Section 6(2), in determining the minimal effect of an agreement “consideration shall be given to all relevant circumstances including the aggregate share of all the undertakings concerned”. However, under Section 6(3), the exception set out in Section 6(1) is not deemed to apply where “in a relevant market competition is restricted by the cumulative effect of parallel networks of similar agreements established by several undertakings”.

In its Section 5(3), the Competition Act explicitly provides for the exemption of certain agreements falling within the prohibition set out in Section 5(1), namely where such agreements contribute to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical and economic progress while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit. However, such agreements must not impose restrictions which are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives on the undertakings concerned, nor afford them the possibility of eliminating or significantly reducing competition in respect of a substantial part of the products to which the agreement, decision or concerted practice refers.

Individual exemptions under Section 8 may be given by the Minister, after consultation of the Director General of the Office for Competition following an application by the parties.

Exemptions under Section 8 of the Competition Act may also be granted through the adoption of block exemptions, i.e. exempting categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices from the prohibition of Section 5. Block exemption regulations are adopted by the Commerce Minister upon consultation with the Director General of the Office for Competition. Block exemptions are largely modeled on EU block exemptions. The following block exemptions have been adopted:

- on vertical agreements and concerted practices (No LN 271/01), which came into force on 1 November 2001 but was then allowed to expire;

- on horizontal agreements (No LN 175/02) of 2002;

- on technology transfer agreements (No LN 176 of 2002) was then allowed to expire;

- on research and development agreements (No LN 177 of 2002);

- and on specialization agreements (No LN 178 of 2002).

Global Competition Law

516. The prohibition

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Les notions juridiques connexes

516. The prohibition

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise