All attendees and staff members must take great care to ensure that in the course of the Conference no breaches of cartel-law provisions take place.
Everyone attending the Conference must strictly comply with the cartel-law provisions, in particular the Article 101(1) Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
“The following shall be prohibited as incompatible with the internal market: all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which may affect trade between Member States and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the internal market, and in particular those which:
a) directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices or any other trading conditions;
b) limit or control production, markets, technical development, or investment;
c) share markets or sources of supply;
d) apply dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties,
thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;
e) make the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.”
As well as express contracts or agreements or formal resolutions, acts prohibited by cartel law often take the form of concerted practices and thus they are forbidden.
According to a definition by the European Court of Justice, ‘concerted practices’ cover all forms of coordination that do not lead to the conclusion of a contract in the true sense, but which consciously allow practical cooperation to take the place of competition with its associated risks.
June 2024