Since 2004, EU Member States have been mandated and obligated to apply EU competition law parallel to national law and refrain from condemning agreements permissible under art.101. Moreover, a close co-operation forum has been established to co-ordinate decisions and secure this vertical alignment between national and EU competition law. A review of the framework has now been initiated,
focusing predominantly on procedural issues and the power to adopt decisions nationally. However, the matter of vertical alignment could also merit some attention as it appears to come in shades of grey.