Draft Specialisation and Research and Development Agreements Block Exemption Orders 2022
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The government response to this consultation outlines the technical drafting changes made by BEIS following the consultation, and how BEIS intends to proceed. See the final orders as made on 5 December 2022:
Detail of feedback received
We received one written response from a competition lawyer, and had additional further engagement with stakeholders and the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA).
Respondents welcomed the introduction of the SABEO and the R&D BEO and the opportunity to provide comments on its draft. While generally content that the order achieved the intended outcome, certain improvements to the drafting were proposed.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The Secretary of State has accepted the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendation that certain specialisation and R&D agreements should be specified in block exemption orders under section 6 of the Competition Act 1998. This will exempt them 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 these orders 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 orders replace similar block exemptions - the retained Specialisation Block Exemption Regulation and the retained Research and Development Block Exemption Regulation - which were made under EU law and retained in UK law after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The retained block exemptions expire on 31 December 2022.
The draft explanatory memoranda include explanations of the draft legislation.
We would like your views and feedback on these draft orders to make sure they deliver the policy correctly and effectively.
There is no consultation document.
Read the BEIS consultation privacy notice.
Documents
Updates to this page
Published 20 September 2022Last updated 5 January 2023 + show all updates
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Government response published.
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First published.