1. BIICL 15 NOVEMBER 2010 MICHAEL HUTCHINGS INTRODUCTION
HUB AND SPOKE
BIICL 15 NOVEMBER 2010
MICHAEL HUTCHINGS
INTRODUCTION

2. TWO PREVIOUS SEMINARS 19 October 2009 19 April 2010 Legal Analysis
UK Focused
19 April 2010
EU Proposals
Various NCA cases
UK Supermarkets Code

3. RESEARCH PROJECT
BRIEF: Legal analysis of hub and spoke agreements under UK competition law
RESEARCHER: Peter Whelan
OUTPUT: Article in European Competition Journal December 2009
FUTURE WORK: Explore themes from other EU countries

4. THEMES FROM WHELAN RESEARCH
Innocuous information exchanges may be anti-competitive
Parallel cases in numerous EU countries
“Hub & Spoke” collusion is a feature of UK milk and tobacco cases
Vertical information flows can be deemed to be “horizontal”
High legal hurdle to establish unlawful horizontal collusion

5. THEMES FROM SEMINARS
Horizontal collusion requires higher standard of proof than vertical restrictions
Conditional participation not enough – the vertical agreement must be unlawful (e.g. RPM)
RPM is easier to nail than H&S (e.g. UK Tobacco)
Margin protection practices = RPM??
Compliance requirements for trading partners including category management