Article 101 of The Treaty On The Functioning of The European Union - Exemptions

Exemptions

Exemptions to Article 101 behaviour fall into three categories. First, Article 101(3) creates an exemption where the practice is beneficial to consumers, e.g., by facilitating technological advances (efficiencies), but does not restrict all competition in the area. In practice very few official exemptions were given by the Commission and a new system for dealing with them is currently under review. Secondly, the Commission has agreed to exempt 'Agreements of minor importance' (except those fixing sale prices) from Article 101. This exemption applies to small companies, together holding no more than 10% of the relevant market in the case of horizontal agreements and 15% each in the case of vertical agreements (the de minimis condition). In this situation as with Article 102 (see below), market definition is a crucial, but often highly difficult, matter to resolve. Thirdly, the Commission has also introduced a collection of block exemptions for different types of contract and in particular in the case of vertical agreements. These include a list of permitted contract terms, and a list of those banned in these exemptions (the so-called hardcore restrictions).