European Commission publishes expert report by Whish and Bailey

02/03/22

On 2 March 2022 the European Commission published a report by Professors Richard Whish and David Bailey entitled “Horizontal Guidelines on delineation between purchasing agreements: by object and by effect restrictions”.  The Report examines judgments, decisions, guidelines and articles on buyer cartels and joint purchasing and negotiation agreements from within the EU and from countries around the world. The Report defines what is meant by a ‘buyer cartel’ and by ‘joint purchasing’, and makes a number of suggestions for the framework of analysis for determining whether such agreements restrict competition by object or by effect. In particular, it considers the topical issue of whether the pursuit of sustainability objectives (using that term broadly to include matters such as environmental protection, animal health and/or welfare, or social protection) by a joint purchasing agreement may influence its characterisation as being restrictive of competition.

The report is available here