COMPETITION • EUROPEAN LAW • RESTRICTIVE AGREEMENTS
According to Regulation No 1218/2010, joint production agreements are those where two or more parties agree to produce certain products jointly. The concerted behavior can in fact take the form of an agreement for joint production using shared facilities or a specialization or sub-contracting agreement, by which the parties agree to carry out part of the production or a stage of the manufacturing process according to their own area of specialization. Although Article 101 prohibits agreements which have the object or effect of restricting or controlling production, such agreements can escape the ban, if they have no other purpose than to allow undertakings to rationalize their production or to prevent undertakings from taking on production for which they are not competitive, while at the same time enabling each of them to offer their customers a full range of products.
The legality of such agreements is subject to the condition that they do not lead to coordination of the behavior of the parties in their capacity as suppliers. The agreements must not set prices for products supplied by the parties on the market, limit production or allocate markets or groups of customers or lead to an exchange of information.
