Guidelines for application of EEC competition rules in telecommunications
As a follow-up to its 1987 Green Paper on the development of the common market for telecommunications services and equipment (COM(87) 290), the Commission has published detailed guidelines on the application of EEC competition rules in the telecommunications sector. These are intended to advise public telecommunications operators, other telecommunications service and equipment suppliers and users, the legal profession and the interested members of the public about the general legal and economic principles which have been and are being followed by the Commission in the application of competition rules to undertakings in the telecommunications sector. Referring to Regulation (EEC) No 418/85 (Official Journal No L 53 of 2.2.85) for the block exemption of R&D agreements in all sectors, the Guidelines point out that joint companies' activities which may result from R&D in telecommunications are not automatically cleared or exempted as such from the application of the competition rules.