On 19 March 2020, the UK Government宣布它将暂时放弃一定的补偿tition laws in order to allow grocers to coordinate their responses to supply issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The relaxation was announced after a number of UK supermarkets called for clarity on whether they would be able to cooperate with competitors in order to ensure security of supply during the crisis. On 28 March 2020, the1998年竞争法（杂货）（冠状病毒）（公共政策排除）订单2020(“the命令”） 生效了。

环境，食品和农村事务部长乔治······························厄佩茨“By relaxing elements of competition laws temporarily, our retailers can work together on their contingency plans and share the resources they need with each other during these unprecedented circumstances.”本文重点关注英国杂货店的竞争法豁免，并在EEA其他地方暂缓评论。

Which elements of competition law are being relaxed?

这UK Government will now allow exchanges of certain types of commercial information between supermarkets, such as data on stock levels. Other forms of cooperation that are temporarily excluded from the Competition Act prohibition include:

• coordination to limit purchases by consumers of particular groceries;
• 协调使商店能够保持开放或临时封闭商店;
• coordination to assist particular groups of consumers (e.g. critical workers, clinically vulnerable and socially isolated groups), such as prioritising deliveries or opening stores at specific times to these groups or otherwise providing assistance to them;
• sharing labour, distribution and delivery systems and facilities;
• sharing information on services provided by logistics service providers.

这Order also contains a list of activities of logistics services providers that are excluded from the prohibition on anti-competitive agreements during the period of disruption, including the exchange of information, labour or facilities in relation to the delivery of groceries. All agreements that fall within the scope of the Order must be notified to the Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy, which will compile, maintain and publish a register of agreements.

In addition, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has acknowledged that coordination may be necessary to ensure security of supplies, and hasprovided further reassurance即，即使企业以某种方式合作，也不会被规定的执法行动所做的，以便在目前危机期间保护消费者。

On 25 March 2020, the CMA published进一步的指导on cooperation between businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its enforcement priorities in light of the current crisis. In summary, the CMA will not take enforcement action where businesses take temporary measures to coordinate action to ensure the supply of important goods and services, provided that such measures:

a) are appropriate and necessary to avoid a shortage or to ensure security of supply;

b) are in the public interest;

c) contribute to the benefit or wellbeing of consumers;

d) deal with critical issues that arise as a result of the pandemic; and

e) last no longer than necessary to deal with these issues.

This guidance also gives additional clarity on how criteria for exemption from the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements, as set out in section 9 Competition Act 1998, should be applied in individual cases during the pandemic, “to assist businesses in more confidently making their own assessment in the specific circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic“。

法律放松不包括什么?

订单不会涵盖零售商的任何协调，这些都没有专门用于保护消费者。这Explanatory Memorandum至明确指出，与成本或价格有关的信息的直接分享不包括在这些排除的范围内，也不包含在未来的业务战略上分享任何信息或勾结。

这CMA has stated that the relaxation will not prevent it from taking action against businesses exchanging information “where this is not necessary to meet the needs of the current situation”,in particular information on long-term pricing or business strategy. Businesses attempting to exploit the current situation in order to engage in “non-essential collusion” will not be shielded from competition law enforcement by the relaxation. The CMA also notes that supermarkets will not be immune from private damages actions by consumers or businesses claiming that they have suffered harm due to cooperation between supermarkets.

在CMA的最多recent guidance, it gives further examples of the types of activities that will not be tolerated, including:

• 从任何合作或合作的努力中排除较小竞争对手以实现供应安全的任何努力;
• “价格刨刨”;和
• coordination that extends to the distribution or provision of goods or services not affects by the COVID-19 pandemic.

更广泛的背景

This is not the first time that the Government and CMA have sought to reassure businesses that enforcement action will not be taken against them where they are taking necessary steps in order to react to a challenging circumstances. In its2020年的年度计划到2021年，CMA的六个关键优先事项之一是支持在面对气候危机的低碳经济过渡。它指出它将与企业沟通，以确保他们没有“在违反竞争法的基础上，不必要地害羞地远离这些举措.” Whilst not providing an explicit relaxation of competition law, this suggests that the CMA will look favourably on businesses that are working towards sustainability.

英国也不是唯一在过去几周内采取了这种临时措施的国家。上周，挪威政府宣布a temporary waiver of competition law for the transportation sector. On 13 March 2020, Ursula von der Leyen (President of the European Commission)陈述that the EU will provide Member States “maximum flexibility” on state aid in order to support industries that are under threat, such as tourism and retail.

It is critical that, regardless of this temporary waiver, grocers continue to comply with the spirit of competition law and are careful not to coordinate in a way that takes advantage of the crisis for their own benefit, to the detriment of consumers. Businesses must also ensure that they do not coordinate their activities to the extent that it is difficult to unravel after the waiver is lifted.

这将是有趣的,看看specific waivers of national competition law will become more commonplace after the end of the pandemic, for example for businesses that are cooperating with the aim of becoming carbon-neutral. Under EU competition law, only the Commission has the power to adopt exemption regulations providing a “safe harbour” for certain types of agreement that are generally seen as beneficial. However, in a post-Brexit UK, it is possible that national block exemption regulations may be adopted. Alternatively, using the COVID-19 response as a precedent, may choose to take a more flexible approach by relaxing competition laws for limited time periods where a specific goal is to be achieved.

斯蒂芬史密斯，合作伙伴，龙牙品		Helena Connors，助理，牙科
Stephen is a partner in the Competition practice and spends his time in both our London and Brussels offices. 他有20年的经验，涉及广泛的欧盟和英国竞争法问题。他的实践包括分销协议，合并控制，卡特尔和反信托调查，滥用统治和竞争诉讼。 斯蒂芬被他的客户承认，擅长提供务实，商业咨询和他的经验跨越各种各样的行业，包括生命科学，金融服务，零售，制造，电信和技术。他还在监管机构内部工作，在他的职业生涯中，在英国的沟通监管机构曾在Ofcom工作过。 Stephen is fluent in French and is a former Chair of the Law Society’s Competition Section, where he remains a member of the Committee.		Helena is an associate in the competition department. She joined Bristows as a trainee solicitor in August 2017 and qualified in 2019. 由于资格赛，海伦娜在制药部门协助监管调查，是荣誉团队的成员，该团队为一名技术客户而言，与欧洲委员会滥用统治决定产生的后续索赔。 海伦娜是钢板上的繁荣博客的贡献者和IP法律，剪辑板。