The New EU Competition Commissioner Promises Swift and Constructive Antitrust Guidance for Green Initiatives

In one of her first official public events, Teresa Ribera, the current holder of the EC’s competition portfolio (which is now broader and combines competition enforcement and green transition matters), has pledged to “help enable cooperation between businesses for genuinely green initiatives by providing swift and constructive guidance to companies on the compatibility with EU competition rules of their projects.”

In 2022 the EC updated its Informal Guidance Notice to loosen the criteria required for companies to seek comfort from the EC that their collaboration initiatives do not cross the line in the EU. Companies are entitled to receive guidance letters if the agreement or initiative at stake raises “novel or unresolved questions” where there is “no sufficient clarity in the existing EU legal framework.”

Those were welcome clarifications, but left open the question of the extent to which the EC would be willing to provide guidance that is not overly conservative. Indeed, the two guidance letters issued during the Covid-19 pandemic (under Commissioner Vestager) appeared to largely restate the law in a rather conservative manner, and therefore served mainly as a signal that cooperation to address the problems created by the pandemic was encouraged, while likely doing little to solve genuine legal uncertainties for the companies involved.

So far, the revised Informal Guidance Notice has not been used to assess sustainability initiatives. The absence of guidance may reinforce the impression that sustainability collaboration raises compliance risks that are difficult to manage. At the same time, the antitrust framework in other jurisdictions, such as the U.S., is much less welcoming of sustainability collaboration between competitors, which no doubt acts as a significant deterrent for the implementation of global sustainability initiatives.

Against this background, and given the focus of Commissioner Ribera’s portfolio on sustainability, the renewed attention on the Informal Guidance Notice doesn’t come as a surprise. It may also signal a willingness by the EC to align itself more with national competition authorities in the EU, some of which are already quite active in providing informal guidance letters at the request of companies, including the Dutch, the German, and the Belgian authorities.

Boosting the use of the EC’s Informal Guidance notice is part of the competition toolbox Commissioner Ribera is planning to use to face “the new challenges” ahead. Other initiatives include:

• Adopting a new state aid framework for investments in renewable energy and the decarbonization of heavy industry
• Upgrading the framework for the assessment of mergers to put more weight on aspects such as resilience, efficiency, and innovation
• Enforcing vigorously the Foreign Subsidies Regulation and the Digital Markets Act

* Thibault Henry and Axelle Bodart contributed to this Blog. Mr. Henry and Ms. Bodart are associates in Arnold & Porter’s Brussels office.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2025 All Rights Reserved. This Blog post is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.