The year 2004 saw the replacement of the notification procedure with a system of competition law self-evaluation, and the completion, with the adoption of the new Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation and related guidelines, of the Commission’s revamping of much of the substantive law under Article 81. Analysing, under the new rules, collaboration agreements regarding the development, production and marketing of new pharmaceutical products, and the licensing of the related IPRs, provides a useful opportunity to test the new rules as applied to a world of fast-paced, complex and sophisticated agreements in a particular sector. The result of this exercise is to highlight some important competition law issues raised by some common contractual provisions, and the need for clarification by the Commission of certain obscurities and inconsistencies in the new regulations, in particular the related Notices and Guidelines.
World Competition