The guidelines on the application of article 81(3) EC: A critical review

To date, the European Commission has not yet made use of the novel guidance instruments established under Regulation 1/2003 (Article 10 inapplicability decisions, guidance letters, etc.), or taken any exemption decision pursuant to Article 81(3). The "brave new world" of Regulation 1/2003 is thus a competition enforcement system devoid of individual guidance and positive decisions. That is not to say, however, that firms have been left without formal guidance. In early 2004, the Commission issued Guidelines on Article 81(3), which set out the methodological and substantive framework for the self-assessment of agreements under Article 81(3). The present paper paper offers a critical review of those Guidelines and explains why, in practice, firms and their counsels have repeatedly argued that this text is unpractical and thus of little use.