Abstract
This article discusses issues related to vertical agreements. I focus on recent developments in the treatment of such agreements by European Commission competition law, including the new vertical agreements Block Exempt Regulation and the accompanying Guidelines that came into effect in June of 2010. The main structure of the old Regulation has been maintained. The general direction of the changes in the Regulation and especially in the Guidelines is in line with a more effects-based and economics-based approach to competition policy that has been adopted gradually in the EC over the last decade as well as with the developments in the United States concerning the treatment of resale price maintenance. However, since it is extremely unlikely that vertical agreements that involve only firms with small market shares will have an anticompetitive effect, the adoption of a de minimis approach for all vertical agreements appears advisable for the future.
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