Finally, the Commission yesterday came up with a new Communication on the block exemption: here is a link to the page on the DG Competition website where the documents can be viewed or downloaded. The most immediately important point is that it will propose to extend the present exemption for a more-generous-than-expected three years, which means that no-one needs to feel quite as anxious about the approach of the end of next May as they did before. However, the Commission is drawing a distinction - in terms that seem to be rather novel, but probably very helpful - between the primary market and the aftermarket: the extension will apply (going by the slightly impenetrable wording of the press release) to the primary market (that is, the market for cars, and presumably for other vehicles within the scope of the regulation) but the aftermarket, it seems, might become subject to the application of the general competition rules together with a code of practice or guidelines or something similar containing the dealer protection stuff that the Commission has been saying was not appropriate in a competition instrument.
Further comment when I have studied more of the documents, over the next few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment