Antitrust: The Commission remains committed to providing swift antitrust guidance on cooperation initiatives in view of the coronavirus crisis

Today, the European Commission launched a dedicated website to provide guidance to companies, associations and their legal advisors where there is uncertainty about the compatibility with EU competition law of concrete cooperation initiatives with an EU dimension that need to be swiftly implemented in order to effectively tackle the coronavirus crisis. The Commission acknowledges that cooperation among businesses might be crucial in order to ensure the supply and fair distribution of essential goods and services, as well as to mitigate as much as possible the negative economic and social consequences of this crisis. The aim of today’s initiative is to help businesses design such new and temporary cooperation arrangements in a pro-competitive way in order to help Europe overcome the current coronavirus crisis in a united manner.  In addition to bringing under a single roof the different sets of Guidelines already available, the European Commission has now set up a functional mailbox (COMP-COVID-ANTITRUST@ec.europa.eu) that can be used by businesses to seek informal guidance on specific initiatives set up to overcome the current crisis. More information is available on the dedicated webpage (see here).