Consultation on the CMA’s proposed recommendation on the Assimilated TTBER

The CMA is consulting on its proposed recommendation (the Proposed Recommendation) to the Secretary of State (SoS) for Business and Trade regarding the Assimilated Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (the Assimilated TTBER), which expires on 30 April 2026. The Assimilated TTBER exempts certain types of technology transfer agreements from the Chapter I prohibition of the Competition Act.

In the Proposed Recommendation, the CMA proposes to recommend that the Secretary of State make a block exemption order of 12 years’ duration that exempts the categories of technology transfer agreements currently exempted by the Assimilated TTBER, and which includes the same definitions, conditions and obligations as the Assimilated TTBER (adapted as necessary for UK purposes), but with the following variations:

• removing ‘utility models’ from the definition of ‘technology rights’
• adding ‘copyright in a database’ and ‘database rights’ to the definitions of ‘technology rights’ and ‘intellectual property rights’
• adding definitions of ‘active sales’ and ‘passive sales’
• replacing the market share thresholds in respect of technology markets with a condition that there be at least 3 independently controlled substitutable technologies in addition to the technologies held by the parties to the agreement

The CMA has prepared the Proposed Recommendation having regard, among other things, to responses to the call for inputs on the Assimilated TTBER, which ran from midday on 26 July 2024 to 5pm on 6 September 2024. These responses to the call for inputs are published on the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation consultation page.