ZWeR 2024, 78
Article 210a of the CMO Regulation: supporting the transition to a sustainable food system in the Union and strengthening the position of producers in the agri-food supply chain
Since December 2021, Article 210a of Regulation 1308/2013 excludes certain restrictive agreements in the agricultural sector from the prohibition in Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union when those agreements are indispensable to achieve sustainability standards going beyond the mandatory EU or national rules. Moreover, on 7 December 2023, the European Commission adopted guidelines concerning the conditions for the application of Article 210a. This article therefore describes Article 210a and the Commission’s guidelines and assesses the extent to which those guidelines will contribute to the stated aim of Article 210a, which is to support the transition to a sustainable food system in the Union and to strengthen the position of producers in the agri-food supply chain.
Contents
- I. Introduction
- II. Personal scope of Article 210a of the CMO Regulation
- III. Products covered by Article 210a of the CMO Regulation
- IV. Material scope of Article 210a of the CMO Regulation
- V. Restrictions of competition excluded by Article 210a of the CMO Regulation
- VI. The notion of “indispensability” under Article 210a(1) of the CMO Regulation
- 1. Step 1: the indispensability of the sustainability agreement
- 2. Step 2: the indispensability of the restrictions of competition
- 3. No need to assess market coverage as part of indispensability
- VII. Temporal scope of Article 210a of the CMO Regulation
- VIII. Procedure for requesting an opinion from the Commission under Article 210a(6) of the CMO Regulation
- IX. Conditions for ex post intervention by the Commission or a national competition authority under Article 210A(7) of the CMO Regulation
- 1. Jeopardising the CAP objectives
- 2. Exclusion of competition
- 3. Procedural aspects
- X. Burden of proof
- XI. Conclusion
- *
- *)Member of the Legal Service of the European Commission, Brussels. The author gratefully acknowledges comments and contributions received from Philippe Chauve and Oliver Sitar. All views expressed in this article are strictly personal and should not be construed as reflecting the opinion of the European Commission, its Legal Service or any of the above-mentioned persons.
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