Latest Review, February 2025 on:
A practical guide to ensuring that distribution of products and services complies with EU competition law
How to structure distribution systems in Europe? The book by Benedikt Rohrßen serves as a quick guide to EU Competition Law for distribution systems, providing draft wording for all kinds of distribution agreements and more than forty (!) tables and overviews, sketches, checklists and graphics to illustrate individual topics such as Exclusive Distribution Systems (p. 105) or Selective Distribution Systems (p. 111) or various forms of territorial or customer restrictions (p. 107).
To quote Professor Dr. iur. Dr. rer. publ. Dr. h.c. mult. Martinek's review in the German Journal on Distribution Law (ZVertriebsR 2024, 199 – originally in German)
„This book is an important addition to the literature on distribution antitrust law and must be kept within easy reach of every distribution law workplace if one does not opt for the cheaper electronic version. ... A big compliment! ...
Above all, however, the great compliment is due to the book's aim and task of familiarizing distribution lawyers with the revised Vertical Block Exemption Regulation, which has been in force since June 1, 2022, and making it easier to understand and explain it from a contract technology perspective. Benedikt Rohrßen does extraordinary justice to this objective. … he chooses a systematic, or rather, an originally systematizing style, i.e. one that independently organizes the material of the normative regulatory framework, which is characterized by the everyday challenge of drafting contracts: How do I get a certain distribution system with specific economic objectives and marketing policy requirements under control in terms of antitrust law, i.e. VBER-compliant, in terms of contract design? The two guiding principles that govern the systematized examination of the subject of vertical agreements are, first, the specific identification of the requirements and tasks for a specific, for example digital, dual, exclusive or selective distribution system or for a franchise system and, second, the optimal and “legally secure” implementation of contract law as an act of law enforcement. The book is therefore much more than a “work aid” that is used only as a supplement to provide suggestions or reassurance in one's own formulation efforts; it is a direct set of instructions for working with the Vertical BER and the Vertical Guidelines, which is the first to make the material operational for practitioners and makes it “manageable”. It is with grateful pleasure that one draws on the numerous successful formulations that the book offers in a directly exploitable and usable way for one's own contract drafting or revision.
Reading this book, you will be inspired to roll up your sleeves and get to work on the contractual design of a distribution system based on the client's sales targets (which are usually difficult to determine). The famous “wandering of the legal gaze” between reality (what is?) and normativity (what should be?) is so encouraged by the systematizing and understanding-illuminating treatment of the material that the end product of a contract design that corresponds to both the sales policy objectives and the normative requirements seems readily achievable. The numerous (more than forty!) tables, overviews, sketches, checklists and graphics with which Benedikt Rohrßen addresses individual topics, for example to illustrate an Exclusive Distribution System (EDS) (p. 105) or to visualize a Selective Distribution System (SDS) (p. 111), are particularly inviting in this regard. to identify various forms of territorial or customer restrictions and capture them in corresponding clauses from the catalog of sample clauses (p. 107) or to clarify restrictions on suppliers of components in the area of aftermarket restrictions (p. 128) – to name just a few examples. In general, Benedikt Rohrßen's work is characterized by the fact that he succeeds in using the Vertical Guidelines (which in turn often require explanation) to provide a better comprehensible and understandable classification system for the VBER's terminologically highly abstract regulatory concerns, and then to derive immediate instructions for action and design or wording suggestions from it. The conclusion of this review is unequivocal: there is really only one plausible reason to deny yourself the purchase and constant use of this book in its print version, namely that you already have the electronic version of the work on your computer; and even this reason is not entirely convincing because you would like to hold such an important book in your hands “live”.”
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Review of the book by attorney H. H. Pfeil, president of the German society for distribution law (“DGVR”) (here translated into English), Janaury 2024:
The revised "Vertical Distribution" Block Exemption Regulation has been in force since June 1, 2022. As is well known, vertical agreements that restrict competition can be void. The Block Exemption Regulation sets out the possibilities and limits of vertical agreements concluded between contracting parties at different levels of the production and distribution chain. It is therefore relevant for all contractual structures that link suppliers and buyers, importers, wholesalers, retailers, franchisees or end consumers.
In order to make the most of the possibilities without overstepping the legal limits, advice is essential. The new book from Rohrßen offers such support. It contains in-depth explanations, numerous tables, overviews, checklists and many drafting suggestions for adapting new or existing distribution and franchise agreements to the changed legal situation. The well-designed tables and diagrams in particular provide a quick overview and help the reader to quickly grasp the subject matter.
The work is primarily aimed at legal practitioners (lawyers, management consultants, employees in authorities, judges, etc.) in Germany and abroad (therefore written in English).
Conclusion: A worthwhile purchase, especially for internationally oriented law firms.
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