Guidelines on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market

Policy field

Competition: Foreign Subsidies

Target group

All citizens, organisations and public authorities are welcome to contribute to this consultation.

Contributions are particularly sought from EU Member States and stakeholders directly affected by the Commission’s enforcement of the FSR or with relevant expertise in foreign subsidies, notably business with operations in all sectors of the economy, business associations, academics, legal professionals with expertise in applying EU competition law, economic consultancies and consumers associations.

Period of Consultation

From 18.07.2025 to 12.09.2025 at 23:59 CEST

Objective of the Consultation

Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (‘Regulation 2022/2560’) lays down rules and procedures for investigating foreign subsidies that distort the internal market and for redressing such distortions.

Article 46 of Regulation 2022/2560 mandates the Commission to publish guidelines regarding four technical concepts that need to be clarified. They concern the application of the criteria for determining the existence of a distortion according to Article 4(1) of the FSR/ of Regulation 2022/2560, the application of the balancing test in accordance with Article 6, the application of the Commission’s power to request the prior notification of any concentration according to Article 21(5) or foreign financial contributions received by an economic operator in a public procurement procedure according to Article 29(8), and the assessment of a distortion in a public procurement procedure according to Article 27.

Against this background, on 5 March 2025 the Commission has launched the process leading to the adoption of guidelines with a Call for Evidence and a targeted consultations with Member States and selected stakeholders and is now seeking feedback on proposed Foreign Subsidies Regulation Guidelines. The replies to the Call for Evidence and the replies to the questionnaire of the targeted consultations have been taken into account in the preparation of the draft Guidelines.

How to submit your contribution

Consultation closed

Consultation document

• Draft Guidelines on the application of certain provisions of Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market
• Press release (IP/25/1863)

Reference documents and other, related consultations

Call for evidence of 5 March 2025

Next steps

The Commission will review the submitted feedback to assess potential revisions to the draft guidelines, ensuring they address the concerns and suggestions raised.

The draft FSR Guidelines will be further discussed with the Member States’ FSR Advisory Committee in the last quarter of 2025 and will be published by January 2026.

A summary of the results of the consultation activities will be made available in a synopsis report that will be annexed to the staff working document supporting the Communication from the Commission to be published by 13 January 2026 at the latest.