Comfort Letter

Note: a description about Comfort letter is also available in the Competition Law Portal of the European Encyclopedia of Law.

Comfort letter in the European Antitrust Law

Meaning of Comfort letter provided by the “Glossary of terms used in EU competition policy” (European Commission. Directorate-General for Competition. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, cop. 2002): Administrative letter sent to the notifying parties confirming informally and normally without any reasoning either:

— that the Commission sees no grounds for action against an agreement under Article 81(1) of the EC Treaty, because it does not restrict competition and/or affect trade between Member States (negative clearance-type comfort letter), or — that the agreement fulfils the conditions for granting an exemption under Article 81(3) of the EC Treaty (exemption-type comfort letter).