“The Matchmaking Event – Towards COVID-19 vaccines upscale production” (the Matchmaking Event) took place on 29-31 March 2021, bringing together companies with production capacities, manufacturers of key inputs for COVID-19 vaccines and developers and manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines, seeking to match demand for potentially scarce inputs with supply. Participating companies were able to schedule numerous meetings online and discuss new collaboration opportunities and possible partnerships linked to the production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines. 

Participants included companies operating at different levels of the supply chain as well as direct competitors, creating the risk of exchanges of confidential commercial information between them in the context of their discussions on potential collaboration. Such exchanges can be problematic under the EU competition rules. Therefore, the organisers of the event took the precaution of seeking guidance and comfort from the Commission concerning the compliance of the Matchmaking Event with the EU competition rules. 

Companies are normally themselves responsible for assessing the legality of their agreements and practices under the competition rules, but the Commission has set up a temporary process whereby it will exceptionally provide ad hoc written comfort to undertakings in relation to specific and well-defined cooperation projects, aimed at addressing the shortage of essential products during the COVID-19 pandemic.¹ The Commission has also clarified in this context that exchanges of commercially sensitive information will not be problematic under EU competition law if they are temporary and objectively necessary to address a shortage of products to treat COVID-19 and do not exceed what is strictly necessary to address the shortage of supply.

Specific safeguards put in place at the Matchmaking Event

In order to grant comfort to the organisers of the Matchmaking Event, the Commission required that the following safeguards be put in place:

• in relation to matchmaking meetings between any companies (regardless of whether they are competitors or active at different levels of the supply chain), any exchange of confidential business information will be limited to what is indispensable for effectively resolving the supply challenges linked to COVID-19 pandemic;
• in relation to any matchmaking meetings between direct competitors:
  • companies will not share any confidential business information regarding their competing products, in particular information relating to prices, discounts, costs, sales, commercial strategies, expansion plans and investments, customer lists, etc.; and 
  • direct competitors will keep a record of which topics they discussed.
• If direct competitors considered that exchanging confidential business information in relation to competing products was indispensable to finding solutions for scaling-up production or supply of COVID-19 vaccines, they were invited to contact the Commission for specific guidance at least 24 hours before engaging in any such exchange.
• The organisers of the Matchmaking Event were required to keep a record of which companies met during the event and to make it available to the Commission upon request.