The Competition (Guernsey) Ordinance, 2012 (the "Competition Ordinance") was introduced in order to protect consumers and to ensure that businesses compete fairly, without unfair advantages.
The Competition Ordinance prohibits anti-competitive agreements between businesses. A business, that is a party to an agreement which may breach the Competition Ordinance may apply to the Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority (the "GCRA"), if it considers that such an agreement may be eligible for an individual exemption under section 6 of the Competition Ordinance.
Block exemptions can generate significant benefits, including:
- creating legal certainty about the status of business agreements under competition law;
- reducing the administrative burden, on companies, which would otherwise have to apply to the competition authority for an individual exemption; and
- assisting with the work load of a competition authority, enabling it to prioritise cases that are likely to have a significant competitive impact, by excluding block exempted cases which do not require individual examination.
This consultation paper was issued, by the Committee for Economic Development (the "Committee"), to seek feedback on the proposal to introduce a block exemption, to exempt certain types of vertical arrangements (the "Proposal").
The results can now be found in the downloads section of this page.
Closed: 10th January 2020
