The European Commission has adopted its new guidelines for agreements between competitor (“Horizontal Guidelines”) – which for the first time – contain specific guidance on the antitrust assessment of sustainability agreements.  The guidelines are part of an evolving dialogue among antitrust regulators in the EU and globally to ensure competition law supports legitimate cooperation to pursue climate and other sustainability goals.

On February 28, 2023, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) demonstrated its thought leadership in the integration of sustainability and competition policy by publishing draft guidance (“Draft UK Guidelines”) on the application of competition rules to agreements between competitors to tackle environmental sustainability objectives.[1]

On 30 June 2022, the EU institutions reached political agreement on a new regulation which will allow the European Commission to control non-EU government subsidies given to businesses active in the EU (the “Regulation”).