Commission Exempts Whitbread Standard Pub Leases

United Kingdom

The Commission’s decision granting retroactive exemption to the standard pub leases of Whitbread has been published in the Official Journal. In its decision, the Commission explained that the obligation to notify the agreements in order to receive an individual exemption does not apply to agreements under which the only parties are companies from one Member State and the agreements do not relate either to imports or to exports between Member States.

As Whitbread still has a large tenanted estate, it continues to enter into standard leases with a duration of twenty years, the Commission considered that a relatively low term exemption period (until 31 December 2008) is appropriate in order to enable Whitbread to invest in its estate with a reasonable level of legal certainty under EC competition rules.