Abstract This article examines sustainability agreements and the role of national competition authorities (NCAs) in the EU Member States. NCAs enforce the EU prohibition on competition-restricting agreements and the corresponding national rules. Soft EU law, particularly the guidance on horizontal sustainability agreements, performs an essential function in this domain. Since it is not binding on NCAs or on the Court of Justice of the European Union, legal uncertainty persists. This article examines how NCAs can operate in this environment and discusses the EU law arguments that may support a permissive attitude to sustainability agreements on the national level. It further explores the specific approaches of the NCAs of the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Greece – jurisdictions that have been particularly proactive in addressing sustainability agreements. The documents which those NCAs have issued highlight the complexity of encouraging cooperation in sustainability while safeguarding competition. While the law remains uncertain and national approaches still diverge, the willingness of NCAs to accommodate sustainability goals into competition law is a promising development.
Katri Havu (Wed,) studied this question.