International Supply and Distribution Arrangements: Current Trends & Issues Article
This article has been updated and reproduced with the permission of the Maryland Bar Journal published by the Maryland State Bar Association.
David B. Eberhardt and John E. McCann, Jr. recently wrote an article that appeared in the July/August 2010 edition of the Maryland Bar Journal. Although the article was just recently published, it was drafted and submitted for publication before May 31, 2010. Due to the timing of the submission, the article explained on page 47 that, "The EC Guidelines, including those relating to RPM, are set to expire on May 31, 2010, and the [European] Commission's treatment of certain aspects of RPM issues may change under certain proposed revisions to the EC Guidelines." Since that time, effective June 1, 2010, the Commission adopted a new set of Guidelines on Vertical Restraints, SEC (2010) 411 (“New EC Guidelines”) including those relating to RPM. See New EC Guidelines, § 2.10, ¶¶ 223 -229. The New EC Guidelines now explicitly state that minimum RPM falls within Article 101(1) (formerly Article 81(1)) and “gives rise to the presumption that the agreement is unlikely to fulfill the conditions of Article 101(3), for which reason the block exemption does not apply.” Id., ¶ 223. In light of the recent adoption of the New EC Guidelines, the article has been updated with references and citations to the New EC Guidelines. For an updated version of the International Supply and Distribution Arrangements: Current Trends & Issues article, please click here.
This article has been updated and reproduced with the permission of the Maryland Bar Journal published by the Maryland State Bar Association
