Competition rules

Many industry organizations have voluntarily formed consortia to assist their members register their substances in accordance with REACH legislation. 

No Consortium-formation guidelines are provided by the European Commission but industry is expected to ensure that any Consortium is compatible with EU competition law.

The attached text provides the code of conduct:

Part I: reminding of the EC Treaty provisions

The parties shall not make any agreements concerning coordination of conduct that restrict or affect competition within the meaning of Art. 81 EC Treaty; they shall observe the prohibition of abusing a market-dominating position pursuant to Art. 82 EC Treaty:

Article 81

1.      The following shall be prohibited as incompatible with the common market: all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which may affect trade between Member States and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the common market, and in particular those which:

(a)    directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices or any other trading conditions;

(b)    limit or control production, markets, technical development, or investment;

(c)    share markets or sources of supply;

(d)    apply dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;

(e)    make the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.

2. Any agreements or decisions prohibited pursuant to this article shall be automatically void.

    The provisions of paragraph 1 may, however, be declared inapplicable in the case of:

-        any agreement or category of agreements between undertakings,

-        any decision or category of decisions by associations of undertakings,

-        any concerted practice or category of concerted practices,

which contributes to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, and which does not:

(a)    impose on the undertakings concerned restrictions which are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives;

(b)    afford such undertakings the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantial part of the products in question.

Article 82

Any abuse by one or more undertakings of a dominant position within the common market or in a substantial part of it shall be prohibited as incompatible with the common market in so far as it may affect trade between Member States.

Such abuse may, in particular, consist in:

(a)    directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;

(b)    limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;

(c)    applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;

(d)    making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.