Newsletter "EU Legal Update (October 2026)" has been published.

EU Competition Law and Sustainability: Horizontal Cooperation Guidelines and Draft Revised Merger Guidelines

The European Union has increasingly integrated environmental sustainability into its competition policy framework. This article examines how the 2023 Horizontal Cooperation Guidelines address sustainability agreements among competitors under Article 101 TFEU, including safe harbour conditions for sustainability standardisation and individual exemption pathways. It also covers the European Commission’s draft revised Merger Guidelines, which expressly recognise sustainability as a non-price parameter of competition and acknowledge that demonstrated efficiency claims may include sustainability or resilience benefits.

Contents
1. EU Competition Law and Sustainability
2. Introduction of Recent Publications