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ClientEarth’s contribution to the EC public consultation
ClientEarth is generally supportive of the draft guidelines on the application of the exclusion from Article 101 TFUE for sustainability agreements of agricultural producers pursuant to Article 210a of Regulation 1308/2013 establishing a common organisation of the market in agricultural products (CMO) which has been amended by Regulation 2021/2117.
Our comments mainly concern the scope of the sustainability objectives and the assessment of the restriction of competition; in particular, the possibility to conclude agreements on minimum prices, the consideration of market coverage and the assessment of indispensability criteria.
Key issues we inquire the Commission to consider relate to (i) the size and position of the producers when assessing the environmental improvement brought by a sustainability agreement, and (ii) the level of legal certainty of an a posteriori case-by-case assessment for agreements when the market coverage exceeds certain thresholds.