Wettbewerbsrecht im Kontext von Technologietransfer- und Lizenzverträgen, PharmR 4/2024

EU competition law in the context of technology transfer, license and settlement agreements: Since at least the initiation of the first pharma sector inquiry in 2008, the pharma industry has been under close and austere scrutiny of the EU Commission. In the first part of this mini-series, Dr. Marco Stief provided a summary of the competition law regulations that need to be observed in the context of R&D project. In the now published second part, he concentrates on the stumbling blocks when drafting technology transfer, license and settlement agreements. Ignoring these strict and sometimes surprising regulations may easily result in serious consequences far beyond the invalidity of specific clauses. Breaches of antitrust law can lead to investigations by competition authorities, impositions or even fines. His article, now published in PharmR 4/2004, provides an overview of the relevant and particularly critical regulations. Its aim is to help companies to appraise their technology transfer and license agreements and also to shed light on the sometimes convoluted system of European competition rules and the TT Block Exemption Regulation.