Informal guidance regarding TruStone Initiative

Natural stone companies have jointly made arrangements in a covenant (the TruStone Initiative) to counter the negative impact on people, animals, and the environment throughout their entire production and supply chains, including outside the Netherlands. On behalf of its participants, the TruStone Initiative has asked the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) whether this initiative is allowed. ACM has informally assessed whether the collaboration is allowed under competition rules, and sees no objections.

ACM concludes that the covenant has no adverse effects on customers of the companies involved, such as higher prices. The participants in the initiative agree to make their own production and supply chains more sustainable. This is mandatory under the initiative, but each company ultimately does this for itself and for its own chain. Covenant participants can, however, initiate joint projects around certain themes, such as a living wage or child labor, in order to bundle knowledge and experience. Joint actions within these projects could, for example, consist of attending workshops or conducting research in a region, in order to tackle identified problems more effectively. Participants are free to take additional sustainability steps if they wish.

• Arrangements between businesses regarding sustainability (in Dutch)
• Collaboration check (in Dutch)