EU Competition Law & the Green Deal: The Consistency Road

The EU roadmap for making the economy sustainable by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 and by at least 50 percent by 2030 (the Green Deal) is already affecting European Union antitrust policy and enforcement. My main argument is that the European Commission is already minded to tailor its competition enforcement to the Green Deal. In turn, the Green Deal legislation, and in particular the EU Green Taxonomy Regulation, offers quantitative thresholds to allow a proper balancing of sustainability benefits and anti-competitive effects to possibly exempt cooperation between competitors targeted at sustainability. This note is addressed to lawyers, who I argue already have the tools for advising corporations that they may cooperate to fight climate change whilst remaining in compliance of competition rules.

By Gianni de Stefano¹

The EU roadmap for making the economy sustainable by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 and by at least 50 percent by 2030 (the “Green Deal”)² is already affecting European Union (“EU”) antitrust policy and enforcement.

My main argument is that the European Commission (“Commission”) is already minded to tailor its competition enforcement to the Green Deal. In turn, the Green Deal legislation, and in particular the EU Green Taxonomy Regulation, offers quantitative thresholds to allow a proper balancing of sustainability benefits and anti-competitive effects to possibly exempt cooperation betwee