EC officials "see no reason to renew EU automotive block exemption regulation"

A report written by European Commission officials sees "no valid reason" to renew the automotive distribution and aftersales block exemption regulation due to expire in 2010. According to documents seen by John Revill of Automotive News Europe (7th April) the Commission favours an end to the industry-speficic block exemption, which would leave the automotive franchise system covered by the ¡®general exemption¡¯ covering other vertical distribution networks in the EU.
 
"There seems no valid reason to envisage a replacement sector-specific regulation," says a consultation document written by Paolo Cesarini, the head of the Commission unit in charge of competition in the automotive sector.
 
There is currently no evidence of market failure or of consumer harm to justify the continuation of separate rules for the automotive sector, the document states: "If maintained in any future regime applicable to the (automotive) sector, several provisions of the BER would risk constraining contractual parties," the document says.
 
The current block exemption regulation 14002/2002 was introduced in 2002 and liberalized its predecessors¡¯ provisions, intending to give franchised retailers and independent aftermarket parts suppliers and service operators more power vis a vis vehicle manufacturers. Provisions to enable more dealers to operate multi-franchised retail sites found few takers.
 
The European Commission is currently operating a consultation period before the Commission makes a proposal concerning the renewal, revision or non-renewal of the block exemption in 2009 ¨C which will involve an impact assessment, referral to MEPs, and the agreement of the Council of Ministers.
 
Organisations representing European franchised motor dealers are anxious that the block exemption be renewed; aftermarket associations have been principally concerned to ensure that the current regulations be beefed up to force manufacturers to make technical data more freely available to independent aftermarket operators.
From: auto industry.uk/news

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