The Autorité publishes its first informal guidance in the area of sustainability

The Autorité de la concurrence has today published its first informal guidance in the area of sustainability, provided under the notice adopted on 27 May.

Two professional organisations representing operators in the animal nutrition sector asked the General Rapporteur for informal guidance on a draft guide providing a standardised methodology for calculating products’ environmental footprint.

The General Rapporteur found the professional organisations’ request to be admissible and considered that a draft collective methodology for calculating products’ carbon footprint could be considered a standardisation agreement within the meaning of chapter 9 of the EU Commission guidelines on horizontal agreements.

In the letter sent to the requesters, the General Rapporteur highlighted in particular that exchanges of sensitive information between competitors should be limited, that companies should be able to go further than the collective methodology if they so wish and that a scientifically-sound methodology and individual data are essential.