Draft guidance on how competition laws apply to environmental sustainability agreements

The Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA) has recently published for consultation draft guidance as to how competition laws apply to environmental sustainability agreements. 

The CMA’s Guidance is relevant to any organisation in the life sciences sector that is considering collaborating with competitors in relation to environmental sustainability goals (including, for example, agreements aimed at improving air or water quality, conserving biodiversity, reducing carbon emissions or promoting the use of raw materials).   In the life sciences sector, environmental sustainability initiatives may include:

• industry initiatives to develop environmental sustainability policies for use internally by organisations (e.g. initiatives to reduce the use of plastics by organisations);
• joint research and development initiatives that have environmental sustainability aims or are focussed on producing more environmentally friendly products;
• industry wide environmental standards or codes; and
• agreements with other organisations that relate to the environmental sustainability of the production, distribution, and supply of products. 

The aim of the Guidance, as we discuss here: How businesses can co-operate on environmental goals - new CMA guidance, is to provide clarity as to how competition law applies to environmental sustainability agreements to ensure that organisations are not discouraged from entering into such agreements due to competition law concerns.