Antitrust Law Information

We, FIR Aachen GmbH as well as the registered companies and/or partner companies/co-organisers attach great importance to compliance with German and EU antitrust law in all our activities. Violations of antitrust law can result in fines and claims for damages. There is also a risk of reputational damage, which must also be avoided.

The ban on cartels (Art. 101 para. 1 TFEU; Section 1 ARC) prohibits, in particular, agreements between competitors on market behaviour and the disclosure of information relevant to competition, such as prices, price components, delivery times, warranties, costs, customers, quantities and innovations.

Restrictions of competition may be exempt from the ban on cartels because they are necessary in specific individual cases to create efficiencies in favour of consumers (e.g. better quality products) and effective residual competition remains (Section 2 ARC; Art. 101 para. 3 TFEU). There are a number of privileges for co-operation in the area of R&D. Exceptions to the ban on cartels require a case-by-case assessment in advance.

Against this background, participants undertake to comply with the following rules of conduct at events and to contact the respective Compliance Officer in the event of any uncertainties:

• The participating and/or enrolled companies check in advance and document on their own responsibility whether a specific cooperation project is permissible under antitrust law and which basic rules must be observed. The binding antitrust guidelines of RWTH Aachen Campus can be consulted at any time.
• In particular, cooperation projects for standard-setting, benchmarking or agreements relating to the (commercial) utilisation of R&D results should be subject to a preliminary review.
• Communication between the participants must generally be limited to what is necessary for the realisation of the respective projects.
• At all events, including breaks, care is taken to ensure that no problematic topics or projects are addressed. In cases of doubt or uncertainty, a topic is put on hold, the Compliance Officer is informed and legal advice is sought.
• An event is cancelled, the Compliance Officer is informed and legal advice is sought if the impression arises that a cooperation project is being run as a sham, e.g. to coordinate prices and markets, or involves the coordinated renunciation of innovation activities.
• As a rule, an invitation, an agenda and an attendance list are drawn up for events. All topics discussed and resolutions passed must then be recorded in the minutes. No topics are discussed that are not included in the minutes.
• As a rule, the invitation, agenda and minutes are circulated to all participants. All participants check these for problematic and ambiguous wording and ask for corrections if necessary.