This browser is not actively supported anymore. For the best passle experience, we strongly recommend you upgrade your browser.
Norton Rose Fulbright logo
  • Global
  • About
    • Back
    • About
    • Our firm
      • Back
      • Our firm
      • Clients
      • Global coverage
      • Vision, culture and people
      • Governance structure
      • Risk management
      • NRF Transform
      • Alumni
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Back
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Our people
      • Recognition
      • Governance
    • Corporate responsibility
      • Back
      • Corporate responsibility
      • Pro bono
      • Volunteering
      • Fundraising
      • Sustainable practice
      • Global charitable initiatives
    • Photo montage
      RE:

      Read our magazine
  • People
  • Services
    • Back
    • Services
    • Services A-Z
    • Key industries
      • Back
      • Key industries
      • Consumer markets
      • Energy, infrastructure and resources
      • Financial institutions
      • Life sciences and healthcare
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Practices
      • Back
      • Practices
      • Antitrust and competition
      • Banking and finance
      • Bankruptcy, financial restructuring and insolvency
      • Climate change and sustainability
      • Consulting
      • Corporate, M&A and securities
      • Employment and labor
      • Energy
      • Environmental, social and governance (ESG)
      • Financial services and regulation
      • Information governance, privacy and cybersecurity
      • Intellectual property
      • Litigation and disputes
      • Private equity and venture capital
      • Projects
      • Real estate
      • Regulation and investigations
      • Risk advisory
      • Tax
      • Banking and finance
      • Climate change and sustainability
      • Corporate, M&A and securities
      • Energy
      • Financial services and regulation
      • Intellectual property
      • Private equity and venture capital
      • Real estate
      • Risk advisory
    • NRF Transform
    • Transform image

      Find out more
  • Insights
    • Back
    • Insights
    • NRF InstituteProfessional developmentResources and tools
    • PublicationsBlogsVideos
    • EventsWebinarsPodcasts
    • colorful light particles
      Sustainability and ESG

      Visit the hub
  • News
    • Back
    • News
    • Press releases
    • Market recognitions
    • Media information
  • Locations
  • Careers
    • Back
    • Careers
    • Graduates and students
    • Search current vacancies
      • Back
      • Search current vacancies
  • Change
  • Global
    • Back
    • global site
    • North America
      • Canada (English)
      • Canada (Français)
      • United States
    • Latin America
      • Latin America
      • Brazil
      • Mexico
    • Europe
      • Belgium
      • Deutschland (Deutsch)
      • France
      • Germany (English)
      • Greece
      • Italy
      • Luxembourg
      • Monaco
      • Poland
      • The Netherlands
      • Turkey
      • United Kingdom
    • Middle East
    • Africa
      • Africa
      • Burundi
      • Kenya
      • Morocco
      • South Africa
      • Uganda
      • Zimbabwe
    • Asia Pacific
      • Australia
      • China
      • Hong Kong SAR
      • Indonesia
      • Japan
      • Singapore
      • Thailand
    • Regional practices
      • India
      • Israel
      • Korea
      • Marshall Islands
      • Nordic region
      • Pakistan
Lake in the forest

Connections

Insights, perspectives and viewpoints from our lawyers on topical issues

All Posts Subscribe
print-logo
April 27, 2023 | 2 minutes read

Sustainability agreements: How should these agreements be treated under antitrust or competition law?

featured image
Avatar
Ian Giles
Head of Antitrust and Competition, Europe, Middle East and Asia
Avatar
Ian Giles
Head of Antitrust and Competition, Europe, Middle East and Asia

Antitrust enforcers and policymakers globally are grappling with their approach to sustainability agreements – agreements between competitors that aim to achieve sustainability goals. 

Is collaboration vital to overcome the “first mover disadvantage”, namely businesses unwilling to be first to pursue sustainability goals, for concerns that this may disadvantage them against their rivals? 

Alternatively, are sustainability goals better met by businesses competing, not collaborating, on sustainability? Do sustainability agreements need rigorous scrutiny to ensure the benefits are not overstated or amount to “greenwashing” and to ensure the benefits outweigh any potential harm, such as higher prices or less choice? 

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recently released draft guidance proposing a new more permissive approach for “climate change agreements”, which contribute towards the UK’s binding climate change targets under domestic or international law. The CMA intends to allow the full benefits to all UK consumers, not only those in relevant or related markets, to be taken into account when assessing the fair share requirement under section 9 Competition Act 1998. Ultimately, this will make it easier for climate change agreements to qualify for exemption and not infringe UK competition law. 

Several EU Member States (notably the Netherlands, Austria and Greece) also favour a more permissive approach, but their efforts in this regard are shadowed by the European Commission’s position as Member State authorities must usually apply the EU competition law rules when assessing such agreements, rather than their national rules which may be more relaxed. The European Commission’s position will be confirmed in new guidance expected to apply from 1 July. The published draft of this guidance provides greater clarity on the application of EU rules on sustainability initiatives with a dedicated “soft” safe harbour, but does not go as far as the CMA’s guidance in certain aspects or the approach some EU Member States would like.

Across the Atlantic, sustainability initiatives have become a politicised topic with “net zero” initiatives attracting scrutiny, albeit at state and not federal level. Opinions vary with some states’ environmental regulatory agencies actively pushing for greater sustainability efforts, while other states’ enforcers are sceptical and are voicing concerns.

While an interesting debate, these different and evolving approaches between jurisdictions create a challenging environment for international and global companies wanting to collaborate on sustainability initiatives but needing to tailor what they do where. 

I recently discussed the key issues with Richard Whish KC, getting his viewpoints on the differing approaches and possible future developments.


For more information about sustainability agreements and other key antitrust and competition law developments, see our Global antitrust and competition trends for 2023.

Tags

consumer markets, antitrust and competition, esg, esg and sustainability, governance
Avatar
Ian Giles
Head of Antitrust and Competition, Europe, Middle East and Asia
Avatar
Ian Giles
Head of Antitrust and Competition, Europe, Middle East and Asia

Latest Insights

post featured image
May 31, 2023

Is technology disrupting how employers measure performance?

By Paul Griffin
post featured image
May 22, 2023

Power of Networking - IMO Women in Maritime Day

By Olivia Cullen
54
54
post featured image
May 17, 2023

Managing whistleblowing reports

By Paul Griffin
11
11

Explore our site

  • About
  • Careers
  • Diversity, equity and inclusion
  • People
  • Services
  • Insights
  • News

Key industries

  • Consumer markets
  • Energy, infrastructure and resources
  • Financial institutions
  • Life sciences and healthcare
  • Technology
  • Transport

Locations

  • Global coverage

Norton Rose Fulbright © 2022. All Rights Reserved.

  • Amsterdam
  • ●
  • Athens
  • ●
  • Austin
  • ●
  • Bangkok
  • ●
  • Beijing
  • ●
  • Brisbane
  • ●
  • Brussels
  • ●
  • Bujumbura**
  • ●
  • Calgary
  • ●
  • Canberra
  • ●
  • Cape Town
  • ●
  • Casablanca
  • ●
  • Dallas
  • ●
  • Denver
  • ●
  • Dubai
  • ●
  • Durban
  • ●
  • Düsseldorf
  • ●
  • Frankfurt
  • ●
  • Hamburg
  • ●
  • Harare**
  • ●
  • Hong Kong SAR
  • ●
  • Houston
  • ●
  • Istanbul
  • ●
  • Jakarta*
  • ●
  • Johannesburg
  • ●
  • Kampala**
  • ●
  • London
  • ●
  • Los Angeles
  • ●
  • Luxembourg
  • ●
  • Melbourne
  • ●
  • Mexico City
  • ●
  • Milan
  • ●
  • Minneapolis
  • ●
  • Monaco
  • ●
  • Montréal
  • ●
  • Munich
  • ●
  • Newcastle
  • ●
  • New York
  • ●
  • Nairobi**
  • ●
  • Ottawa
  • ●
  • Paris
  • ●
  • Perth
  • ●
  • Piraeus
  • ●
  • Québec
  • ●
  • Riyadh*
  • ●
  • San Antonio
  • ●
  • San Francisco
  • ●
  • São Paulo
  • ●
  • Shanghai
  • ●
  • Singapore
  • ●
  • St. Louis
  • ●
  • Sydney
  • ●
  • Tokyo
  • ●
  • Toronto
  • ●
  • Vancouver
  • ●
  • Warsaw
  • ●
  • Washington DC *associate office **alliance
  • Legal notices and disclaimers
  • Impressum
  • Standard terms
  • Blog network terms and conditions
  • Cookies policy
  • Privacy notice
  • Website access conditions
  • Fraud alerts
  • Modern Slavery Statements
  • Health plan machine readable files
  • Anti-Facilitation of Tax Evasion Statement
  • Suppliers
  • History
  • Remote access
  • Sitemap
Offices and locations

Norton Rose Fulbright © 2022. All Rights Reserved.

  • Amsterdam
  • ●
  • Athens
  • ●
  • Austin
  • ●
  • Bangkok
  • ●
  • Beijing
  • ●
  • Brisbane
  • ●
  • Brussels
  • ●
  • Bujumbura**
  • ●
  • Calgary
  • ●
  • Canberra
  • ●
  • Cape Town
  • ●
  • Casablanca
  • ●
  • Dallas
  • ●
  • Denver
  • ●
  • Dubai
  • ●
  • Durban
  • ●
  • Düsseldorf
  • ●
  • Frankfurt
  • ●
  • Hamburg
  • ●
  • Harare**
  • ●
  • Hong Kong SAR
  • ●
  • Houston
  • ●
  • Istanbul
  • ●
  • Jakarta*
  • ●
  • Johannesburg
  • ●
  • Kampala**
  • ●
  • London
  • ●
  • Los Angeles
  • ●
  • Luxembourg
  • ●
  • Melbourne
  • ●
  • Mexico City
  • ●
  • Milan
  • ●
  • Minneapolis
  • ●
  • Monaco
  • ●
  • Montréal
  • ●
  • Munich
  • ●
  • Newcastle
  • ●
  • New York
  • ●
  • Nairobi**
  • ●
  • Ottawa
  • ●
  • Paris
  • ●
  • Perth
  • ●
  • Piraeus
  • ●
  • Québec
  • ●
  • Riyadh*
  • ●
  • San Antonio
  • ●
  • San Francisco
  • ●
  • São Paulo
  • ●
  • Shanghai
  • ●
  • Singapore
  • ●
  • St. Louis
  • ●
  • Sydney
  • ●
  • Tokyo
  • ●
  • Toronto
  • ●
  • Vancouver
  • ●
  • Warsaw
  • ●
  • Washington DC *associate office **alliance
Policies and disclaimers
  • Legal notices and disclaimers
  • Impressum
  • Standard terms
  • Blog network terms and conditions
  • Cookies policy
  • Privacy notice
  • Website access conditions
  • Fraud alerts
  • Modern Slavery Statements
  • Health plan machine readable files
  • Anti-Facilitation of Tax Evasion Statement
  • Suppliers
  • History
  • Remote access
  • Sitemap
Visit our global site, or select a location
North America
  • Canada (English)
  • Canada (Français)
  • United States
Latin America
  • Brazil
  • Mexico
Europe
  • Belgium
  • Deutschland (Deutsch)
  • France
  • Germany (English)
  • Greece
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • Monaco
  • Poland
  • The Netherlands
  • Turkey
  • United Kingdom
Middle East
Africa
  • Burundi
  • Kenya
  • Morocco
  • South Africa
  • Uganda
  • Zimbabwe
Asia Pacific
  • Australia
  • China
  • Hong Kong SAR
  • Indonesia
  • Japan
  • Singapore
  • Thailand
Regional practices
  • India
  • Israel
  • Korea
  • Marshall Islands
  • Nordic region
  • Pakistan