Zaden van marktmacht: Bescherming van concurrentie en voedselzekerheid door middel van collaboratieve licentiëring in zaad- en biotechmarkten onder EU-wetgeving en -beleid

The seed sector and related biotechnology markets form the starting point of agricultural and food supply chains, making them essential to global food systems. In recent decades, significant consolidation in these markets has sparked concerns about market power and food security, with critics highlighting risks such as reduced innovation, limited access to essential genetic resources and other key inputs for plant breeding, as well as threats to stable food supplies. Central to these developments is the evolving role of intellectual property (IP). Historically, seed companies relied on Plant Variety Rights (PVRs) to protect their innovations. More recently, however, the proliferation of patents, driven by advances in biotechnology, novel business strategies, and changing legal and economic environments, has significantly complicated the IP landscape. This shift poses challenges, particularly for breeders' access to genetic material and other resources necessary for plant breeding. In response, seed companies and other stakeholders have increasingly adopted collaborative licensing arrangements, which are voluntary, market-driven IP licensing initiatives between IP holders and technology users. These arrangements range from relatively straightforward bilateral or cross-licensing agreements to more sophisticated multiparty structures, such as patent pools, clearinghouses, and licensing membership platforms. Although licensing arrangements generally promote competition by facilitating access to IP, certain forms raise unresolved concerns around market power and food security. Moreover, the current EU legal framework governing some collaborative licensing structures suffers from notable uncertainty and inadequacies, creating ambiguity regarding their status and regulation under EU (competition) law. Against this backdrop, this dissertation critically assesses the adequacy of the existing EU legal and policy framework governing collaborative licensing in the seed sector. It evaluates EU competition law, particularly Article 101 TFEU, the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation, and the Technology Transfer Guidelines, as well as other legal and policy domains like the Common Agricultural Policy and EU unfair trade law. Building upon this analysis, the dissertation proposes a theoretical model to guide legal and policy intervention for agri-food collaborations in general and collaborative licensing in particular. It suggests targeted reforms aimed at safeguarding competition and food security, while enhancing the effectiveness, proportionality, and legal certainty of the current framework.