As the European Commission`s investigation into the e-commerce sector (“Commission”) shows, this has led to an increased presence of producers at the retail level, for example by opening their own online shops, and to an increased use of restrictions in both agreements and in concerted practices between producers and retailers (“vertical restrictions”). This raises the question of whether the current rules are sufficient to address these trends. In order to strengthen surveillance of parallel networks of vertical agreements with similar anti-competitive effects covering more than 50% of a given market, the Commission may, by a regulation, declare this regulation uninteresting to vertical agreements with specific restrictions on the market in question, thereby restoring the full application of Article 101 of the EC Treaty to these agreements, the supplier`s market share includes all products or services delivered to vertically integrated distributors for the purpose of sale; Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFUE) prohibits concerted agreements and practices between companies that limit competition, unless pro-competitive effects predominate over anti-competitive effects, in accordance with the cumulative criteria set out in Article 101, paragraph 3, of the EUF. The prohibition of Article 101 of the TFUE applies in particular to so-called vertical agreements, i.e. agreements between two or more companies operating at different levels of the production or distribution chain and relating to the conditions under which the parties can buy, sell or resell certain goods or services. The category of agreements that can normally be considered the terms of Article 101, paragraph 3 of the treaty includes vertical agreements for the purchase or sale of goods or services where these agreements are concluded between non-competing companies, between specific competitors or specific associations of commodity traders. It also includes vertical agreements that contain subsidiary provisions relating to the transfer or use of intellectual property rights. The term “vertical agreements” should include corresponding concerted practices. 3. The exemption in paragraph 1 applies to vertical agreements that contain provisions relating to the transfer of intellectual property rights to the purchaser or the purchaser`s use of intellectual property rights, provided that these provisions are not the main purpose of these agreements and are directly related to the use, sale or resale of goods or services by the purchaser or his or her customers.
The exemption applies provided that these provisions do not contain, for contractual goods or services, competition restrictions with the same purpose as vertical restrictions that are not exempt under this Regulation. – Efficiency: have the objectives of the VBER been achieved? That is, the VBER`s ability to enter into free taxation agreements. (h) vertical agreements for which it can reasonably be assumed that they meet the conditions set out in Section 101, paragraph 3, of the TFUE, (ii) to marked restrictions and (iii) to exclusionary restrictions (see above for the difference between the marked and excluded restrictions), vertical agreements that meet the criteria for exemption by category of vertical agreements (VABE) are excluded from the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements under Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (ban). However, the rules for dominant firms continue to apply. In accordance with Article 1 bis of Regulation 19/65/ECE, the Commission may, by regulation, declare that if parallel networks with similar vertical restrictions cover more than 50% of a market in question, this regulation does not apply to vertical agreements that have specific restrictions on that market.