On 14 December 2010, the European Commission published its New Horizontal Guidelines, which provide more detailed information on the assessment of cooperation agreements between actual and potential competitors, in particular concerning information exchange and standardization, as well as new Block Exemption Regulations on R&D and specialization agreements.

The European Commission has published new guidelines for the assessment of cooperation agreements between actual and potential competitors under EU competition rules. The Commission has also published two new Block Exemption Regulations on research and development (R&D) agreements and specialization agreements. The new guidelines are considerably more detailed than before. In particular, the new guidelines contain a new chapter on information exchange and an expanded chapter on standardization agreements.