New EC Horizontal Guidelines: Providing Helpful Guidance in the Highly Diverse and Complex Field of Competitor Cooperation and Information Exchanges

The Judicial Reception of Competition Soft Law in the Netherlands and the UK

“…While it is true that the new, 2011 version of the Horizontal Guidelines does broaden certain discussions that were very condensed in the older edition, 154 scholarly accounts do not point to anything at odds with established law. 155 In that light, it should be mentioned that the current version of the Vertical Guidelines also expanded on certain concepts that were marginally discussed in the old document, but this fact does not affect their positive judicial reception. 156 In this sense, reasons for the observed negative treatment instances with regard to the Horizontal Guidelines should be sought elsewhere.…”