Trademark Licensing Agreements under the EEC Law of Competition

A vast amount of legal literature has addressed the problem of restrictive patent licensing under Article 85 of the EEC Treaty and a substantial number of decision illustrate the EC Commission's policy on that patent-antitrust issue. In contrast, trademark licensing agreement have hardly caught the attention of legal writers and the Campari case of 1977 is the only decision that deals with them. Such paucity of case law is surprising for two reasons. First, trademark licensing agreement are fairly common business practice in sectors such as beer, soft drinks, aperitifs, chocolate, cigarettes, or clothing; and second, several appliations for exemption under Article 85(3) must have alerted the EC Commission to other cases.