This chapter considers how vertical agreements are dealt with by EU and UK competition law. It begins with a discussion of distribution chains in the modern economy, looking at the various ways in which producers market their goods or services to consumers; these have been enormously enhanced by the emergence of e-commerce and the digital economy. Producers may choose to carry on their own distribution function: ‘vertical integration’ is briefly discussed in section 3. Another route to customers is via commercial agency: the competition law considerations of agency are considered in section 4, which also briefly considers vertical sub-contracting relationships. Sections 5 to 9 deal with the application of Article 101 to vertical agreements. Section 5 considers vertical agreements from a policy perspective. Section 6 explains the application of Article 101 to different types of vertical agreement in the light of the case-law of the EU Courts and the Commission’s guidelines on the application of Article 101 to vertical agreements. Section 7 discusses the block exemption for vertical agreements, Regulation 2022/720. Section 8 deals with the individual application of Article 101(3) to vertical agreements. This will be followed by a short section on Regulation 461/2010 on motor vehicle distribution.
Chapter
16. Vertical agreements
Chapter
19. The relationship between intellectual property rights and competition law
This chapter considers the relationship between intellectual property rights and competition law. After a brief introduction, it deals in general terms with the application of Article 101 to licences of intellectual property rights. The chapter proceeds to discuss the provisions of Regulation 316/2014, the block exemption for technology transfer agreements. It also considers the application of Article 101 to various other agreements concerning intellectual property rights such as technology pools and settlements of litigation. This is followed by a section on the application of Article 102 to the way in which dominant undertakings exercise their intellectual property rights, including an examination of the controversial subject of refusals to license intellectual property rights which are sometimes found to be abusive. The chapter concludes with a look at the position in UK competition law.
