TTBER 2026: New rules for technology licence agreements

Draft of a new Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation and new Technology Transfer Guidelines 

EU competition law prohibits agreements that restrict competition. However, this prohibition is not without exceptions: The current version of Commission Regulation (EU) No 316/2014 of 21 March 2014 on the application of Article 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to categories of technology transfer agreements (TTBER) exempts restrictive technology transfer agreements and restrictive clauses in such agreements from the prohibition. Technology transfer agreements refer in particular to licence agreements, i.e. agreements on the use of technology rights such as patents and the like. The reason for the exemption is that as a rule such agreements promote the dissemination of technology, thus contributing to technological progress and can be an important driving force for the economy. 

The TTBER is a very abstract set of rules. To facilitate the practical application of the law, the European Commission (Commission) published guidelines (TT Guidelines). 

The current version of the TTBER will expire on 30 April 2026. In September 2025, the Commission published the draft for a new TTBER and a draft for new TT Guidelines. 

Three of the most significant planned changes are presented below: 

Further development of the "guidance" for technology pools 

The draft of the new TTBER still does not contain any explicit provisions on technology pools. Technology pools are agreements in which holders of technology rights – in particular of standard-essential patents – offer and grant licences jointly as a package. Technology pools are usually based on multilateral rather than bilateral agreements and are therefore outside the scope of the TTBER. The Commission does not envisage any changes to this. 

However, the draft TT Guidelines contain slightly modified provisions on technology pools. In announcing these, the Commission is fulfilling the wish expressed by legal practitioners for more "guidance". To this end, it is adjusting the "soft safe harbour" for standard-essential technology pools. "Safe harbour" in this context means circumstances under which companies are generally not exposed to competition law concerns through their conduct provided that they comply with the requirements of the safe harbour, in this case with the configuration of their technology pool. In this context, "soft" means that the requirements are not quantitative, such as market shares in particular, but merely qualitative. 

The safe harbour will be subject to further conditions in future: 

• The technology pool must achieve transparency by effectively disclosing all technologies in the pool. 
• The methodology used to verify essentiality and the results of the essentiality assessments must be disclosed to licensees. 
• So-called "doubledipping", i.e. accruing licensing fees for the same technology right twice, must be ruled out. 

New section on licensing negotiation groups (LNGs) 

The Commission intends to include new provisions on licensing negotiation groups (LNGs) in the Guidelines. LNGs refer to groups of multiple potential licensees who jointly negotiate licensing terms with the licensor. Critics see these as buyer cartels, while supporters see them as an opportunity to facilitate access to important technology rights for licensees – especially manufacturers of complex products with long supply chains. 

The proposed provisions are similar in part to the informal guidance letter from the Commission from July 2025 on an LNG in the automotive industry. 

As with the provisions on technology pools, the Commission defines a soft safe harbour with a quantitative sub-criterion. In essence, the LNG is to operate openly, limits itself to simply negotiating the licensing conditions, keeps the exchange of information to the minimum necessary and negotiates fairly. In addition, licensing fees must not exceed 10 % of the sale price of the products incorporating the licensed technology. 

The Commission also points out that an individual exemption for LNGs remains possible outside this soft safe harbour. The reduction of transaction costs in particular can support an exemption from the cartel prohibition. 

Data licences included in the TT Guidelines for the first time 

The third major topic addressed in the new rules is data licences. To this end, the Commission has provided for a new subsection in the chapter on technology rights in the TT Guidelines. 

According to this subsection, the principles of the TTBER and the TT Guidelines are also to be applied "as a rule" to data licences if the data are held in a database that is protected by copyright or sui generisright. Beyond this, whether and to what extent these principles can be applied to other data licences, e.g. licences for unstructured raw data sets, must be examined on a case-by-case basis. 

Practical impact 

Overall, the planned changes are manageable and meet the expectations of practitioners. The new rules have not been enacted yet. However, it would be surprising if there were any major changes to the drafts. We will keep you up to date with further developments on our blog and on Law-Now. 

The new rules will provide for a one-year transitional period to adjust agreements to the new requirements. A greater need for adjustment is likely to arise primarily in the areas discussed above. In any case, the entry into effect of a new TTBER in May 2026 provides a good opportunity to review existing licence agreements and participation in in-licensing and out-licensing pools to ensure their (continued) compatibility with competition law.