Regulation 1999/1215 - Amendment of Regulation No 19/65/EEC on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to certain categories of agreements and concerted practices - Main contents

official title

 

Legal instrument	Regulation
Number legal act	Regulation 1999/1215
Original proposal	COM(1998)546
CELEX number i	31999R1215

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Council Regulation (EC) No 1215/1999 of 10 June 1999 amending Regulation No 19/65/EEC on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to certain categories of agreements and concerted practices

Official Journal L 148 , 15/06/1999 P. 0001 - 0004

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1215/1999

of 10 June 1999

amending Regulation No 19/65/EEC on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to certain categories of agreements and concerted practices(1)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 83 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(2),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament(3),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(4),

• (1) 

  Whereas by Regulation No 19/65/EEC(5), the Council empowered the Commission, without prejudice to the application of Council Regulation No 17: first Regulation implementing Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty(6), and in accordance with Article 81(3) of the Treaty, to adopt regulations declaring that Article 81(1) does not apply to certain categories of agreements, and in particular to categories of agreements to which only two undertakings are party and whereby one party agrees with the other to supply only to that other certain goods for resale within a defined area of the common market, or whereby one party agrees with the other to purchase only from that other certain goods for resale, or whereby the two undertakings enter into into such obligations with each other in respect of exclusive supply and purchase for resale;

• (2) 

  Whereas, pursuant to Regulation No 19/65/EEC, the Commission has in particular adopted Regulation (EEC) No 1983/83 of 22 June 1983 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of exclusive distribution agreements(7), Regulation (EEC) No 1984/83 of 22 June 1983 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of exclusive purchasing agreements(8) and Regulation (EEC) No 4087/88 of 30 November 1988 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of franchise agreements(9) (exemption regulations);

• (3) 

  Whereas on 22 January 1997 the Commission published a Green Paper on Vertical Restraints in EC Competition Policy, which generated a wide-ranging public debate on the application of Article 81(1) and (3) of the Treaty to vertical agreements or concerted practices;

• (4) 

  Whereas the response to the Green Paper from the Member States, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and interested parties has been generally in favour of reform of Community competition policy on vertical agreements; whereas the block exemption regulations already referred to should accordingly be revised;

• (5) 

  Whereas any such reform must meet the two requirements of ensuring effective protection of competition and providing adequate legal certainty for firms; whereas the pursuit of those objectives should take account of the need as far as possible to simplify administrative supervision and the legislative framework; whereas at the same level of market power vertical restraints are generally considered less harmful to competition than horizontal restraints;

• (6) 

  Whereas the exemption regulations referred to do not confine themselves to defining the categories of agreements to which they apply and to specifying the restrictions or clauses which are not to be contained in the agreements, but they also list the exempted clauses; whereas this legislative approach to contractual relations is generally perceived to be over rigid in an economic context where distribution structures and techniques are rapidly changing;

• (7) 

  Whereas the said exemption regulations cover only those categories of bilateral exclusive agreements entered...

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