Whether horizontal information exchange agreements are cartel agreements?

Business information is one of the most important necessities for corporations in order to be able to make more accurate business decisions. Deficiency of it influences formation of various information sharing and exchange systems. However, some information exchange agreements between competitors might infringe competition rules. Therefore the main objective of this article is to assess whether horizontal information exchange agreements are cartel agreements. As Lithuanian competition and court authorities still have not dealt with information exchange agreements determination problems, analysis of this issue is based on legal acts and case law of European Union and the U.S. The legal concepts of cartel and cooperation agreements are analysed in the first part of the article. In the second part of the article the exchange of horizontal information such as market share, sales volumes, price information is compared to cartel agreements. This analysis led to identification of character of horizontal information exchange agreements and distinction such kind of information from cartel agreements. In the third part of the article the author analyses Lithuanian competition law in comparison with EU and the U.S. legal regulation. As Lithuania is the member of EU, it is stated that the principles of evaluation of horizontal information exchange agreements used in EU, should also be followed in the implementation of national competition law. The main conclusion of the article gives answer to the raised question. Horizontal information exchange agreement because of its character is not a cartel agreement though it can lead to itVytauto Didžiojo universiteta