The European Commission issues competition guidance in the transport sector

On July 9, 2025, the Directorate-General for Competition within the European Commission issued two informal guidance letters, both intended to bring increased clarity on competition law compliance to companies in the transport sector.

The first letter regards a sustainability agreement aimed at reducing CO₂emissions in European ports, and the second examines the creation of a licensing negotiation group within the automotive sector.

These two guidance letters are the first to be issued under the Commission’s revised Notice on Informal Guidance of 2022, which has made it somewhat easier for companies to obtain guidance relating to “novel or unresolved questions”.

Guidance on sustainability agreement to reduce CO₂emissions in ports

The first guidance letter responds to a request by APM Terminals, part of the Maersk Group, and concerns an agreement on joint purchasing and the setting of technical specifications for electric container-handling equipment used in ports, such as straddle and shuttle carriers. The proposed agreement aims to facilitate the transition from diesel-powered to battery-electric container-handling equipment.

Most straddle and shuttle carriers in European ports are still diesel-powered and terminal operators are reluctant to invest in battery-electric carriers due to the significantly higher costs and the lack of interoperability between the charging equipment from different suppliers. The envisaged agreement aims to address these issues by (i) allowing terminal operators to pool part of their future demand for these products; (ii) providing suppliers with more predictability about future demand; and (iii) setting standards to improve interoperability.

The Commission's guidance indicates that, provided certain safeguards are put in place, it has no concerns under Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (which prohibits anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices between undertakings).

The Commission’s safeguards include the following:

• • Participating terminal operators must be able to continue independent purchases.
  • The pooled demand volume must be capped to prevent anti-competitive effects vis-à-vis the suppliers of the products.
  • Exchange of sensitive information must be limited to what is strictly necessary.

The guidance will remain applicable for five years within the whole European Economic Area (EEA).

Guidance on Automotive Licensing Negotiation Group

The second guidance letter was requested by BMW, Mercedes Benz, ThyssenKrupp and Volkswagen. It concerns their intended creation of the Automotive Licensing Negotiation Group (ALNG). This group’s intended role is to negotiate licenses for technologies covered by Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).

SEPs are patents that are required to implement a certain standard in a product, such as 5G or WiFi. As part of the standardization process, SEP holders make a commitment to grant licenses to use their SEPs under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms as a condition of their patents being included in the standard.

Licensing negotiation groups are a novel form of agreement in the EU, similar to joint purchasing arrangements, but focused on intellectual property rights.

The Commission assessed the ALNG under Article 101 TFEU, and found no competition concerns, provided certain conditions are met:

• • The combined market share of the ALNG's members must not exceed 15% of the total demand for the SEPs or standards concerned.
  • Membership must be open to other automotive companies in the automotive industry (both car manufacturers and component suppliers).
  • Participation in negotiations must be voluntary for SEP holders.
  • Information exchange between ALNG members must be limited to what is strictly necessary for negotiations.

The Commission concluded that the ALNG is unlikely to restrict competition, among others because the member’s combined share of demand on the purchasing market is unlikely to exceed 15% and the cost of licensing SEPs is only a small part of the total cost of automotive products.

The ALNG is expected to increase efficiency in licensing SEPs related to digital technologies, contributing to Europe's decarbonization goals as set out in the Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal. Furthermore, with this guidance, the Commission aims to boost the competitiveness of the EU’s automotive sector as part of the Industrial Action Plan for the European Automotive Sector put forward in March 2025.

Significance

The two guidance letters enable the companies concerned to engage in joint purchasing/licensing and standardization activities while remaining compliant with EU competition rules, allowing them to reap benefits such as reduced costs, improved access to standardized technology, increased competitiveness and accelerated decarbonization.

In 2004, the EU modernized its competition law enforcement rules and procedures, abolishing the centralized notification and authorization system for agreements between undertakings and replacing it with a self-assessment framework. The Commission’s 2004 Notice on informal guidance nevertheless already allowed undertakings to seek guidance from the Commission on “novel or unresolved questions”. However, it seems that the Commission did not in fact issue any such “comfort letters” until 2020, when it issued two letters on cooperation between undertakings in the health care sector to address bottlenecks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the Commission adopted a new Notice, somewhat relaxing the conditions for requesting guidance. At the same time, the Commission signaled that it would make more frequent use of this tool, not least to provide guidance on sustainability agreements that may contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal. The two guidance letters of July 9, 2025, are the first letters to be issued under the 2022 Notice and may herald more to come.

The letters will be published in the case register on the Commission’s website as soon as any confidentiality issues have been resolved with the relevant companies (case numbers AT.40976 and AT.40979).