In this respect, the practice of competition law has remained virtually unchanged to date and competition authorities, at the central level of the European Commission and in each Member State, remain firmly convinced that the economic impact on consumer welfare remains the criterion for assessing competition law. Competition law is important because this new type of private agreement pursuing non-economic objectives has met with stubborn opposition in this area of European law. Indeed, until now, competition law has not been able to determine precisely, when assessing private agreements, how non-economic interests such as social and environmental sustainability measure up to known economic interests, such as price effects. The Netherlands has been highlighted by a number of leading essays that test the interaction between competition law and sustainability. One of them concerned the "Kip van Morgen" ("chicken of tomorrow"), which concerned a sectoral agreement negotiated by the government to improve the standard of living of chickens. It has been submitted to the Dutch Competition Authority (ACM) to verify compliance with competition law. In its assessment, the competition authority assessed, from a monetary point of view, both the impact of the agreement on the harm to consumer welfare (which would lead to a price increase of €1.46/kg) and its environmental and animal welfare benefits (consumers` willingness to pay for these benefits was calculated at €0.82/kg). . . .
Sustainability Agreements
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