On 1 June 2023, the European Commission adopted revised Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations ("HBERs") applicable to R&D agreements and specialisation agreements that serve as an exception to the general prohibition outlined in Article 101(1) TFEU by providing a safe harbour to qualifying R&D and specialisation agreements. The HBERs will enter into force on 1 July 2023. The revised Horizontal Guidelines complement the HBERs by providing insights on how to apply them, how to assess R&D and specialisation agreements outside the safe harbour, and various other common types of cooperation agreements (e.g. joint purchasing agreements, information sharing, or sustainability agreements). See Commission press release here.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.