This book presents the most thoroughgoing model yet offered to ensure the emergence of a genuinely competitive electronic communications industry in Europe. In the course of its in-depth analysis the discussion focuses on such factors as the following: EU telecommunications policy as revealed in liberalization and harmonization legislative measures; the EU electronic communications framework; case law covering issues of refusal to supply and the essential facilities doctrine; application of Article 82 EC to bottlenecks; specific types of an undertakings unilateral behaviour that may often occupy NRAs and competition authorities in the context of their ex post competition law investigations under Article 82 EC; strategic alliances and mergers in the move toward multimedia; access to premium content and the emergence of new media; the scope of content regulation in the online environment; and broadband (regulation of local loop unbundling and bitstream access). The book also provides practical guidance on issues concerning the complicated market definition and analysis mechanism promulgated by the European Commission's Recommendation and Guidelines.

Introducing Diversity in EU Merger Control /Yvan Desmedt & Philippe Laconte --Summary of Recent U.S. Enforcement Decisions in Communication/Entertainment Industry Transactions /Ilene Knable Gotts --Competition and Regulatory Aspects of Convergence, Takeovers and Mergers in the Communications and Media Industries /Thomas Janssens & Joep Wolfhagen --Brazil's Antitrust and Regulatory Reviews of TIM/Telefónica: Lessons Learned /Ana Paula Martinez & Alexandre Ditzel Faraco --Changes in the Global Telecommunication Market and Its Implications in Brazil /Gesner Oliveira & Wagner Heibel --Mergers in the Canadian Communications Sector: An Increasingly Curious Situation /Lorne Salzman --In Search of a Competition Doctrine for Information Technology Markets: Recent Antitrust Developments in the Online Sector /Jeffrey A. Eisenach & Ilene Knable Gotts --The Internet of Things in the Light of Digitalization and Increased Media Convergence /Anna Blume Huttenlauch & Thoralf Knuth --Dynamic Markets and Competition Policy /Bernardo Macedo & Sílvia Fagá de Almeida --Recent Antitrust Developments in the Online Sector/ Federico Marini-Balestra --Mobile Payments and Mobile Banking in Brazil: Perspectives from an Emerging Market /Márcio Issao Nakane, Camila Yumy Saito & Mariana Oliveira e Silva --Internet of Things: Manufacturing Companies Industry and Use of 'White Spectrum': Ghost in the Machine? /Kurt Tiam & Andy Huang --Competitive Aspects of Cloud-Based Services /Fabrizio Cugia di Sant'Orsola & Silvia Giampaolo --Standard-Essential Patents and US Antitrust Law: Light at the End of the Tunnel? /Leon B. Greenfield, Hartmut Schneider & Perry A. Lange --IP and Antitrust: Recent Developments in EU Law /Miguel Rato & Mark English --Antitrust Cases Involving Intellectual Property Rights in the Communication and Media Sector in Brazil /Barbara Rosenberg, Luis Bernardo Cascão & Vivian Terng --Patents Meet Antitrust Law: The State of Play of the FRAND Defense in Germany /Wolrad Prinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont --The Role of Privacy in a Changing World /Chris Boam --The Transatlantic Perspective: Data Protection and Competition Law /Pamela Jones Harbour --Power over Data: Brazil in Times of Digital Uncertainty /Floriano de Azevedo Marques Neto, Milene Louise Renée Coscione & Juliana Deguirmendjian --Big Data and the Cloud: Privacy and Security Threats of Mass Digital Surveillance? /Lyda Mastrantonio & Natalia Porto --Net Neutrality Regulation: A Worldwide Overview and the Chilean Pioneer's Experience /Alfonso Silva & Sebastian Squella --Net Neutrality in Singapore: A Fair Game /Chung Nian Lam --Internet Regulation in Brazil: The Network Neutrality Issue /Lauro Celidonio Gomes dos Reis Neto, Fabio Ferreira Kujawski & Thays Castaldi Gentil --The New Brazilian Internet Constitution and the Netmundial Forum /João Moura --The Brazilian Telecom Regulatory Scenario and the Proposals of the Internet Law /Regina Ribeiro do Valle --Competition in the Brazilian Telecommunication Market /rMaximiliano Martinhão, Guido Lorencini Schuina, Haitam Laboissiere Naser & Leonardo Fernandez Zago --A New Horizon for Competition Advocacy in Brazil /Adriano Augusto do Couto Costa, Marcelo de Matos Ramos & Roberto Domingos Taufick --Overlaps and Synergies between Regulators in the Brazilian Telecommunications Market /Marcelo Bechara de Souza Hobaika & Carlos M. Baigorri --The New Competition Law in Brazil and the New Framework for Merger Analysis in Telecom /Carlos Emmanuel Joppert Ragazzo & Cristiane Landerdahl de Albuquerque --Chapter 31: Regulatory Policy Round Table: A Dialogue between Telecommunications and Antitrust Authorities /Denis Alves Guimarães.

Analyzing the role of governments in the regulation of the new "Information Society", the ten chapters in this book stem from a seminar hosted by the European Media Regulation Seminar Group (ESRG) at the University of Warwick. Each chapter explores the regulatory responses of the UK govermentand the EU to commercial, technical and market convergence in the broadcasting, telecommunications, print media and computing sectors. The text focuses on the establishment of satellite pay-TV, telecommunications and the launch of digital terrestrial TV as they blend real andcyber-governance.

This new volume updates the groundbreaking analysis of its first edition in 2002, when the EC common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services had just entered into force. So much has changed in the intervening years that that this new edition bears little resemblance to its predecessor, with every chapter either extensively altered or entirely new. It remains, however, the most detailed and comprehensive overview available of the application of the EC Treaty's competition rules in the markets for telecommunications and audiovisual media, and of the applicable regulatory framework. In thirteen chapters, each contributed by one or more noted legal authorities in the field, the second edition of EC Competition and Telecommunications Law covers the full range of EC telecommunications law across all major areas of both institutional and substantive law, both on the international and EC levels, including the following: State aid; the merger control regulation; justification for sector-specific regulation in EC competition law; network access; authorizations and privileges; and mobile telephony. Relevant EC media and communications law and relevant aspects of EC competition law are dealt with in detail. While some chapters focus on competition law, others deal primarily with sector-specific regulation. There is practical guidance throughout on procedural matters, alongside analysis of the substantive provisions. Well-known in its first edition, this thoroughly revised and updated version continue to be vital reading for practitioners, in particular those specializing in European competition law and for company and in-house lawyers who are seeking advice on how European law affects their business. As a detailed analysis of the basic legislative and regulatory framework of European telecommunications law, it will be an invaluable reference work for lawyers, judges, regulators, and policymakers in all the EC Member States, as well as for students and teachers of European law.

This book brings satisfying definition and clarity to this field at last. Exploring the substantive differences between competition law and sector-specific regulation after the methodological integration, it presents the first detailed analysis of the many hundreds of notifications and Commission letters generated under the Article 7 procedure, identifying the most relevant cases dealing with market definition, market power, and remedies. It compares these decisions with relevant competition law cases and highlights elements with a bearing on sector-specific regulation. It also offers hugely valuable guidance through the vast amount of documents in the Commission’s CIRCA database. Topics and issues raised include the following: definition of product markets; delineation of geographic markets (including sub-national); different practices in relation to assessing single market power and collective market power; and competition problems such as refusal to deal, margin squeeze, non-price discrimination, and excessive pricing. There can be little doubt that this is the new reference point for researchers and practitioners in this domain. By systematically categorizing the concepts and legal criteria and building a solid theoretical framework on the intersection of competition law and sector-specific regulation, the author has created a resource that is sure to be welcomed by all those involved in regulation of electronic communications markets and network industries in general: academic scholars, telecommunications regulators at the EU and Member State levels, competition authorities, law firms specializing in IT/communications law, practitioners in IT and telecommunications companies, and consultants in the sector. The book will also prove very useful for scholars and practitioners in other parts of the world interested in comparing the EU system with their own.

This book presents a thorough critical examination of the European regulatory reaction to technological convergence, tracing the explicit and implicit mechanisms through which emerging concerns are incorporated into regulation and competition law, and then goes on to identify the patterns that underlie these responses so as to establish the extent to which the issues at stake, and the implications of intervention, are fully understood and considered by authorities. Focusing on ‘conflict points’ – areas of tension inevitably arising among overlapping regimes – the analysis covers such elements as the following: the provision of ‘multiple-play’ services; the advent of ‘convergent devices’; the interchangeability of transmission networks; subscription-based (‘pay television’) services; the diversification of television services (such as on-demand and niche-theme channels); the relative scarcity of (premium) content; the ‘migration’ of television content with cultural and social relevance to pay television; and the emergence of ‘bottleneck’ segments in the communications value chain. Endorsing the adjustment of existing rules to meet pluralist objectives, the author outlines a single, coherent regulatory approach. He shows how a careful analysis of the implications of technological convergence helps to solve conflicts between regimes. Specifically, the analysis addresses the level – national or EU – at which particular regulatory responses should emerge, the objectives guiding action, and the tools through which these objectives may be pursued. These conclusions command the attention of policymakers, regulators, and lawyers active in the ongoing development of communications law.

Using numerous practical examples,this book examines the evolution of EC telecommunications law following the achievement of liberalisation, the main policy goal of the 1990s. After reviewing the development of regulation in the run-up to liberalisation, the author identifies the methods used to direct the liberalisation process and tests their validity in the post-liberalisation context. A critical analysis is made of the claim that competition law will offer sufficient means to regulate the sector in the future. Particular emphasis is given to the way in which EC Competition Law changed in the 1990s using the essential facilities doctrine, an expansive non-discrimination principle and the policing of cross-subsidisation to tackle what were then thought of as regulatory matters. Also examined within the work is the procedural and institutional interplay between competition law and telecommunications regulation. In conclusion, Larouche explores the limits of competition law and puts forward a long-term case for sector-specific regulation, with a precise mandate to ensure that the telecommunications sector as a whole fulfils its role as a foundation for economic and social activity.

Competition policies have long been based on a scholarly tradition focused on static models and static analysis of industrial organisation. However, recent developments in industrial organisation literature have led to significant advances, moving beyond traditional static models and a preoccupation with price competition, to consider the organisation of industries in a dynamic context. This is especially important in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) network industries where competition centres on network effects, innovation and intellectual property rights, and where the key driver of consumer benefit is technological progress. Consequently, when an antitrust intervention is contemplated, a number of considerations that arise out of the specific nature of the ICT sector have to be taken into account to ensure improved consumer welfare. This book considers the adequacy of existing EU competition policy in the area of the ICT industries in the light of the findings of modern economic theory. Particular attention is given to the implications of these dynamic markets for the competitive assessment and treatment of the most common competitive harms in this area, such as non-price predatory practices, tying and bundling, co-operative standard setting, platform joint ventures and co-operative R&D.

Media convergence is often propounded as inevitable and ongoing. Yet much of the governance of the media sector’s key parts has developed along discrete evolutionary paths, mostly incremental in character. This volume breaks new ground through exploring a diverse range of topics at the heart of the media convergence governance debate, such as next generation networks, spectrum, copyright and media subsidies. It shows how reluctance to accommodate non-market based policy solutions creates conflicts and problems resulting in only shallow media convergence thus far.