• any decision or category of decisions by associations of undertakings, • any concerted practice or category of concerted practices, which contributes to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting beneft, and which does not: (a) impose on the undertakings concerned restrictions which are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives; (b) aford such undertakings the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantial part of the products in question. The thinking behind this provision is clear. If, instead of competing with each other, companies agreed to reduce competition, this would distort the level playing feld and thus in turn cause harm to consumers and other businesses. This is why all agreements between undertakings which have as their object or efect a distortion of competition and which may afect trade between Member States are prohibited (paragraph 1) and automatically void (paragraph 2). This includes, for example, explicit agreements (such as those of cartels) and concerted practices for fxing prices or limiting production output, or dividing the market among companies (also called territorial protection clauses). Those types of agreement are always considered harmful to competition and are thus prohibited without exception. On the other hand, other types of agreements may be exempted, provided that they contribute to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress. For example, agreements on cost or risk sharing between companies, or on accelerating innovation through cooperation in research and
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