In late June 2023, Europe’s highest court confirmed in a hotly anticipated judgment involving leading Portuguese beer and beverage producer Super Bock Bebidas that resale price maintenance (RPM)—namely the vertical fixing of...more
In March 2022, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fined the lighting products supplier, Dar Lighting Limited (Dar), £1.5 million for engaging in resale price maintenance (RPM), in breach of the UK prohibition...more
The European Commission has now published its proposed draft of the new EU rules, which will govern distribution agreements until 2032. These are set to replace the current EU Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) and...more
The European Commission (Commission) has launched the impact assessment phase concerning its ongoing revision of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) and the accompanying Vertical Guidelines, which set out the rules...more
It is increasingly common for brands to track the prices of their products online using electronic price monitoring tools. While the practice itself is unlikely to attract antitrust risk, as we have previously reported, in...more
Recent years have seen a surge in enforcement activity with national and supra-national antitrust regulators investigating and fining suppliers and manufacturers for the practice of imposing fixed or minimum resale prices and...more