CMA launches Green Agreement to promote environmental sustainability

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have launched the Green Agreements Guidance, developed to help businesses understand how they can collaborate on environmental sustainability goals, without breaking the law.

It will set our key principles which apply and offer practical examples that businesses will be able to use to inform decision making when working with other companies on environmental sustainability initiatives following recent work by the CMA in March 2022 which found that businesses wanted more clarity about what is, and isn’t legal, when working together on sustainability goals.

The guidance will give firms greater clarity about agreements addressing environmental sustainability, including climate change, explaining how competition law applies to environmental sustainability agreements between firms that operate at the same level of a supply chain.

The CMA will offer an open-door policy for businesses, non-governmental organisations and charities that are seeking guidance, offering informal guidance on proposed environmental sustainability initiatives and the campaign will include a roadmap to support businesses that are attempting to understand different categories of risk.

Tom Dunning, founder, Ad Signal said: “It’s vital that businesses are able to co-operate on environmental goals without falling foul of the regulators. Across the tech and broadcast industries, rapidly growing volumes of video content are already triggering soaring emissions, doing untold damage to the planet.

Large organisations need to get a grip, formulate a clear strategy to tackle these issues and work together to address the problem. AI optimisation should also be top of mind for all organisations, improving their operations while simultaneously limiting negative carbon impact.”

Sarah Cardell, CMA Chief Executive, said: “We know that tackling climate change and promoting environmental sustainability matters, and supporting businesses to do this is a priority for the CMA. So, we have developed the Green Agreements Guidance for all companies who are considering collaborating so they can understand how to agree green goals without breaking the law.

The guidance goes further than before – it gives firms greater certainty about when agreements that genuinely contribute to addressing climate change will be exempt from competition law. Our open-door policy means we can work with companies to give them tailored informal guidance on how they can work together to boost the green economy.”