Greener Competition Law via New Guidelines on Horizontal Agreements (?)

Abstract

The protection of environment is mentioned already in the preamble of the Treaty on European Union, in the Maastricht Treaty version. The omnipresent climate change reminds us of the importance of this protection. Is it possible to take into account the protection of environment also during the application of competition law? If so, to what extent is this desirable? In order to answer these questions, the article focuses on horizontal agreements, namely the new Guidelines on Horizontal Agreements. After presenting the view on green horizontal agreements on the EU level, the article focuses on application of competition law in the Slovak Republic. The main finding of the article is that, first, the protection of environment may be taken into account when applying competition law. This is very desirable from the perspective of protection of environment. However, the devil is in the detail and it may prove to be a particularly difficult job for a competition authority such as the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic to enforce Article 101 TFEU with respect to a green agreement. At the same time, it is a tricky job for undertakings to stay in line with Article 101 TFEU when they conclude a horizontal green agreement.