§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will specify the steps the EEC Commission has taken, and is proposing, to exempt small companies and firms from the rigid application of Article 85 of the Rome Treaties; and to what extent these measures are paralleled in the United Kingdom.
§ Sir G. HoweThe European Commission considers that the general prohibition in Article 85 does not apply to agreements between firms whose size and combined share of the market is too small to have an appreciable effect on trade between member States. The Commission has also granted a block exemption for specialisation agreements where the participating firms are small or medium-sized.
There are no parallel measures in our domestic legislation, which applies only to agreements that include certain specified types of restrictions.