Consultation outcome

Draft order: The Competition Act 1998 (Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption) Order 2023 (MVBEO)

• From: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Department for Business and Trade
• Published: 8 February 2023
• Last updated: 2 May 2023 — See all updates

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption Order: government response

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Detail of outcome

The government response to this consultation outlines the technical drafting issues with the Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption Order raised by respondents and how DBT intends to proceed.

See The Competition Act 1998 (Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption) (No. 2) Order 2023 for the final order as made on 26 May 2023.

Detail of feedback received

We received 9 responses to this consultation. Respondents were generally content that the Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption Order (MVBEO) achieved its intended outcome and proposed certain improvements to the technical drafting.

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Original consultation

Summary

This technical consultation seeks feedback on the legal drafting of Competition Act 1998 (Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption) Order 2023.

This consultation ran from
12:30pm on 8 February 2023 to 11:45pm on 1 March 2023

Consultation description

The Secretary of State accepted the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendation to replace the retained Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (retained MVBER) with a United Kingdom (UK) Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Order (MVBEO), updated to reflect market developments under section 6 of the Competition Act 1998. This will exempt certain agreements in the motor vehicle aftermarket from the prohibition in Chapter I of the Competition Act 1998, which prohibits agreements between firms that prevent, restrict or distort competition.

The purpose of this order is to ensure that businesses are not prevented or disincentivised from entering into agreements that the Competition and Markets Authority considers to be beneficial and not anticompetitive. The order replaces a similar block exemption – the MVBER made under EU law and retained in UK law after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The retained block exemption expires on 31 May 2023.

The draft explanatory memorandum includes the explanation of the draft legislation.

We would like your views and feedback on this draft order to make sure it delivers the policy correctly and effectively: just email to competition@beis.gov.uk (there are no consultation questions).

Read our consultation privacy notice.

Documents

DRAFT: The Competition Act 1998 (Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption) Order 2023

PDF, 977 KB, 9 pages

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DRAFT: Explanatory memorandum to The Competition Act 1998 (Motor Vehicle Agreements Block Exemption) Order 2023

PDF, 354 KB, 9 pages

Published 8 February 2023
Last updated 2 May 2023 + show all updates

1. 2 May 2023

   Published government response.

2. 8 February 2023

   First published.