On January 26, 2021, the Authority for Consumers and Markets（ACM）proposed the second draft of the new guidelines : “Guidelines on Sustainability Agreements: Opportunities within Competition Law.” Under current developments of the green antitrust movement, the draft guidelines offer more leeway for sustainability initiatives and stimulate rigorous discussion within the European Union. The draft guidelines distinguish “environmental-damage agreements” from “other sustainability agreements” in the context of interpreting Article 6（3）of the Dutch Competition Act. Regarding “environmental-damage agreements,” where negative externalities are addressed by sustainability initiatives, the ACM argues that it can be fair to consider benefits for others than merely those of the consumers. This argument seems to contradict the strict consumer-compensation requirement of the European Commission. Although the social cost-benefit analyses（SCBAs）may be useful to evaluate “environmental-damage agreements,” it should be identified how often such situations really occur. The green antitrust movement is sometimes sympathetic and emotive. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully analyze economic evidence. The starting point should be the clarification of factors or conditions in the interpretation of Article 6（1）of the Dutch Competition Act, which leads us to understand that sustainability initiatives do not restrict competition at all under most circumstances.

一橋大学大学院法学研究科

2021-11-10

Japanese(jpn)

departmental bulletin paper

VoR

10.15057/72513

1347-0388

AA1161370X

一橋法学

20

3

71

111

20巻3号(2021.11)

https://hdl.handle.net/10086/72513