Background and Benefits of the Cooperation Agreement Between the Nordic Competition Authorities

This unit was published in „International Cooperation of Competition Authorities in Europe: from Bilateral Agreements to Transgovernmental Networks” Błachucki, M., ed., (2020).

The Nordic competition authorities have decades of experience in cross-border collaboration, and the first formal cooperation agreement between the authorities was signed in 2001. Sixteen years later, the cooperation agreement was renegotiated and expanded to enable wider forms of cooperation. On this occasion, Finland also joined the agreement. The European Competition Network provides for a well-functioning cooperation framework for the national competition authorities of the European Union. However, the EU framework does not meet all the needs of the Nordic countries and leaves room for a more extensive regional cooperation agreement. The Nordic Cooperation Agreement enables the exchange of confidential and non-confidential information in both antitrust and merger cases. In addition, the agreement also applies in purely national cases, i.e. where the competition restriction in question does not affect trade between the Nordic countries. Most importantly, as not all the Nordic countries are part of the EU, the Nordic agreement enables a deep cooperation between EU and non-EU countries.