The European Commission has today adopted the revised Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (‘TTBER’) and Guidelines on the application of Article 101 of the Treaty to technology transfer agreements (‘Guidelines’), following a thorough review of the rules that have been in place since 2014.
Technology transfer agreements are agreements by which a firm that owns technology rights (such as patents, design rights or software copyright) authorises another firm – usually by granting a licence – to use the rights to produce goods or services.Because these agreements facilitate the dissemination of technology and incentivise research and development, they are often pro-competitive, but some (restrictions in these) agreements can also have negative effects on competition.
The TTBER exempts technology transfer agreements from the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements in Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’), subject to certain conditions. The Guidelines help businesses to interpret the TTBER and provide guidance on the assessment of technology transfer and other technology-related agreements that fall outside the block exemption.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_809