The legislative jigsaw

Once upon a time, all there was to worry about was the block exemption regulation itself. The Commission produced a Notice setting out some detail about price differentials, and later one that expanded on how to recognise an intermediary, but essentially the rules that applied to the motor industry seemed pretty self-contained. Now the rules are split between two separate block exemption regulations, each of which comes with guidelines (items 1 to 4 in the list below), plus the manufacturers' concessions on dealer protection issues in the form of the code of good practice, while there are more guidelines and Notices that might be relevant to considering the application of the competition rules to motor vehicle agreements. And technical information is now dealt with in Regulation 715/2007. They can all be found through the Commission's website, but for ease of reference I'll post links here:

1. Commission Regulation (EU) 461/2010 on the application of Article 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to categories of vertical agreements and concerted practices in the motor vehicle sector.
2.  Supplementary guidelines on vertical restraints in agreements for the sale and repair of motor vehicles and for the distribution of spare parts for motor vehicles.
3. Commission Regulation 330/2010 of 20 April 2010 on the application of Article 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to categories of vertical agreements and concerted practices.
4. Commission notice - Guidelines on Vertical Restraints  (Official Journal C 130, 19.05.2010, p. 1).
5. Code of good practice regarding certain aspects of vertical agreements in the motor vehicle sector.
   
6. Commission notice on the definition of the relevant market for the purposes of Community competition law (Official Journal: OJ C 372 09.12.1997, p. 5-13).
7. Commission Notice on agreements of minor importance which do not appreciably restrict competition under Article 81(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community (de minimis) ( Official Journal C 368, 22.12.2001, pages 13-15).
8. Communication from the Commission - Notice - Guidelines on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty (Official Journal C 101, 27.04.2004, pages 97-118).
9. Commission Notice - Guidelines on the effect on trade concept contained in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (Official Journal C 101, 27.04.2004, pages 81-96)
10. Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2007 on type approval of motor vehicles with respect to emissions from light passenger and commercial vehicles (Euro 5 and Euro 6) and on access to vehicle repair and maintenance information.