Introductory text

This Statutory Instrument has been made in part in consequence of a defect in S.I. 2022/1271 and is being issued free of charge to all known recipients of that Statutory Instrument.

COMPETITION

Made 25th March 2026

Laid before Parliament 26th March 2026

Coming into force 1st May 2026

The Competition and Markets Authority has recommended that the Secretary of State make an order specifying certain categories of agreements relating to the transfer of technology rights for the purposes of section 6 of the Competition Act 1998^f1 (“the Act”).

In accordance with section 8(1) of the Act^f2, before making the recommendation the Competition and Markets Authority published details of the proposed recommendation and considered the representations about it which were made to it^f3.

The Secretary of State has decided to give effect to the recommendation with some minor modifications and, in accordance with section 8(2) of the Act, has informed the Competition and Markets Authority of those modifications and has taken their comments into account.

The Secretary of State has also decided to amend the Competition Act 1998 (Research and Development Agreements Block Exemption) Order 2022^f4 and has complied with section 8(5) of the Act^f5 in relation to the amendments to that Order.

The Secretary of State therefore makes this Order in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 6(2), (5), (6) and (7) and 71(3) of the Act.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: 1998 c. 41. Section 6 was amended by paragraph 2 of Schedule 5 to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (c. 24) to give the function of making recommendations to the Competition and Markets Authority. The Competition and Markets Authority was established by section 25 of that Act. This function was previously the responsibility of the Director General for Fair Trading and then the Office of Fair Trading. Other amendments to section 6 were made by paragraph 38 of Schedule 25 to the Enterprise Act 2002 (c. 40) and S.I. 2004/1261. See article 2(1) of this Order for the definition of technology transfer agreements.
f2: Section 8(1) was amended by paragraph 38 of Schedule 25 to the Enterprise Act 2002 and paragraph 3 of Schedule 5 to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013.
f3: The Competition and Markets Authority’s proposed recommendation and responses to its consultation can be found online at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-the-cmas-proposed-recommendation-on-the-assimilated-ttber or obtained by writing to Competition and Markets Authority, The Cabot, 25 Cabot Square, London E14 4QZ.
f4: S.I. 2022/1271, as amended by S.I. 2023/1143 and S.I. 2025/163.
f5: Section 8(5) was amended by paragraph 3 of Schedule 5 to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013.