On 10 May, the European Commission (the ‘Commission’) published final texts of the new Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Regulation (‘VBER’) and the accompanying Guidelines on Vertical Restraints (‘Guidelines’). These two documents set out the full legal framework for the assessment of vertical agreements under EU competition law that will apply from 1 June.
Although the process leading up to this moment started back in 2018, this means that businesses and their advisers have been given only three weeks to digest the final texts before they come into force. While the main changes that will come into force on 1 June are largely as previewed in the draft texts that were published for consultation back in July last year, there are some surprises.
To discover and be surprised, download a copy of our briefing.