Competition: Commission seeks feedback on revised antitrust informal guidance notice

The European Commission has launched today a Call for Evidence inviting all interested parties to provide feedback on the draft text of the revised Informal Guidance Notice. The 2004 Informal Guidance Notice specifies the circumstances in which the Commission would consider issuing informal guidance to individual companies on the application of EU competition rules. In practice, the Commission has never issued any informal guidance pursuant to the Informal Guidance Notice.  The revised text aims to render the tool more flexible to the benefit of businesses seeking the guidance, and thus increase the legal certainty. In particular, the proposed changes aim to update the criteria which will allow the Commission to provide informal guidance in cases which present novel or unresolved questions. All interested parties, in particular businesses carrying out activity across the European Economic Area, can submit their views in any official EU language on the Commission’s Have your say portal and on DG-Competition’s consultations webpage until 21 June 2022. The Commission aims at publishing an updated Informal Guidance Notice before the end of 2022.