Posted: November 30 2009

The Competition Authority has published a Guidance Notice on Activities of Trade Associations and Compliance with Competition Law to inform the business community and trade associations of the limits that competition law places on joint or co-ordinated action by competitors.

The Authority stated recently that while it realises that trade associations can play a “productive, pro-competitive role in the development of a sector, thus promoting the efficient functioning of the market... it has often encountered, in the course of its enforcement activities, situations where trade associations have been used to restrict competition, either by co-ordinating such activity or by providing competitors with the opportunity to meet and form anti-competitive agreements”.

As a result, this notice, using hypothetical and past competition enforcement examples, discusses the application of competition law to a variety of activities of trade associations and their members.