During the last decade the European Commission has progressively adopted what is called a and‘more economic approachand’ toward competition policy. This approach, which draws on U.S. antitrust policy, puts greater emphasis on possible welfare effects of business practices and is less concerned with competitive market structures. Under this school of thought concentration cannot be said to impede effective competition to the extent that efficiency gains outweigh market distortions. In order to stimulate the debate on this basic reorientation, in January 2009 the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law at Hamburg convened economists, legal scholars, and practitioners for an exchange of views on these and‘newand’ methodological foundations of EU competition policy and competition law. Two especially controversial elements were chosen for in-depth discussion: the prohibition of abuses of dominant positions and the review of State aid. This book reproduces fourteen papers from this conference, representing the considered views of prominent European lawyers, economists, academics, policymakers, and enforcement officials in the competition field on matters such as: the objectives of EU competition law; the current enforcement guidelines of the EU Commission regarding Article 102 TFEU and? measuring market power; abusive low pricing strategies; the economics of competition law enforcemennt; recent developments in EU State aid law; economic justifications for State aid. A critical assessment of the Commissionand’s State aid action plan by the German Monopolies Commission is appended in English. Applying law and economics theory to competition law, this book shows that the and‘more economicand’ approach is exerting a considerable impact on various sectors of competition law. The authors clearly demonstrate the progress that can be made when lawyers and economists take notice of and respect the characteristics of each otherand’s discipline. Moreover, the authors show how new insights of economic theory may be integrated into the relevant legal analysis. The book will therefore be appreciated by academics, practitioners, and officials representing both fields.

This is an Open Access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline, thanks to generous funding support from the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary and the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund. The Conceptual Structure of EU Competition Law provides a systematic overview of the key theoretical issues of restrictive agreements, by means of doctrinal analysis and comparative law. Engaging in both positivist and evaluative approaches, Csongor Istvan Nagy conceptualizes case-law in practical terms, outlining its paradigmatic changes and apparent contradictions.

One of the key components of the modernization of competition rules has been a radical departure from the previous «form-based» enforcement to a so-called «effects-based» approach. Taking stock of ten years of experience under this new policy, the present book analyses the changes brought about, as well as the practical problems encountered in its day-to-day application, be it by competition law enforcers, judges or practitioners. This book compiles the reports prepared for the 2011 Annual Conference of the Global Competition Law Centre (“GCLC”). Each and every chapter of this volume formulates concrete proposals as to how the system can be clarified or even improved. The focus is not only on the enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU, but also in the file of merger control. Attempts are made to define more precisely the boundaries between anticompetitive object and effect, and to develop adequate safe harbours and presumptions. This book also casts a closer look at the analytical framework, possible theories of harm, evidence and defences. Overall the objective is to reconcile as best as possible law and economics, and to see how the goal to achieve the “right decision” in terms of economic outcome can be combined with the legitimate need for legal certainty.

This Handbook will be an indispensable reference work for practitioners and scholars, as well as for those in an enforcement environment.

This book, written within the framework of a research project funded by the European Commission Civil Justice Programme, identifies the ways in which cross-border EU competition law actions can best be handled in Europe. Employing traditional library-based legal research methods as well as qualitative interviews with legal practitioners in Germany and England (countries sharing different legal traditions) and policy-makers in Brussels, the book considers how private EU competition law actions are functioning at the moment and how they could and should be developed. The study proposes solutions for some of the most pressing practical problems, and includes chapters by the following academics, legal practitioners and judges: Judge I Pelikánová (General Court of the EU); J Lawrence and A Morfey (Freshfields); P Lasok QC (Monckton Chambers); H Mercer QC (Essex Court Chambers); J Webber (Shearman & Sterling); T Reher (CMS Hasche Sigle, Germany); P Bos and J Möhlmann (BarentsKrans, the Netherlands); P Beaumont (Aberdeen); S Bariatti (Milan); G Howells (Manchester); D Fairgrieve (BIICL); J Fitchen (Aberdeen); A Andreangeli (Edinburgh); D Tzakas (Athens Bar, Greece); S Dnes (Sidley Austin, Brussels); F Becker and J Kammin (Kiel University, Germany); and M Danov (Brunel University).

A ground breaking study of how the interaction between the European Commission and the EU Courts has shaped EU competition law.

This book develops a timely analysis of the complex trends and transformations emerging in EU competition law in the current turbulent times. Repeated economic crises, the climate emergency, digitalisation, and geopolitical and democratic threats are all having profound societal and economic effects on the EU. In light of its fundamental role in the Treaties, EU competition law has been called upon to play an important role in responding to this state of 'turbulence'. This brings about significant governance and constitutional challenges, firstly by questioning how the governance of EU competition law is being transformed to respond and adapt. Secondly, these crisis-induced transformations probe the logic and constitutional limits of EU competition law within the framework of EU law. This collection brings together EU institutional and competition lawyers to reflect on the governance and constitutional challenges emerging from the post-modernisation evolution of EU competition law against the backdrop of the recent multiple crises in the EU. The essays focus on the substantive and procedural developments across the three main policy areas of EU competition law: antitrust, merger control and State aid. EU constitutional and competition lawyers will be interested in this important new collection.

New to this edition: --

Shedding new light on the foundations of European competition law, this volume is a legal and historical study of the emerging law and its evolution through the 1980s. It retraces the development and critical junctures of competition law not only at the level of the European Economic Community but also at the level of major Member States of the EEC. Intensely researched and rich with insights, the chapters in this volume reflect a close collaboration among an expert group of lawyers and historians and capitalize on previously unavailable source materials. The book examines several key themes including: the influence of national and international competition law on the development of EEC competition law; the drafting of the regulations that lead to the development of modern EU competition law; the role of the European Court of Justice in establishing the protection of competition as a central pillar of the Common Market; the internal dynamics, ideologies and tensions within the Competition Directorate General (DG IV) of the European Commission; and the role of industrial policy in European integration. Combining legal analysis with a meticulous excavation of historical evidence to reveal the forces driving key actors and the interactions among them, this volume rediscovers a past largely forgotten but essential to understanding the genesis of competition law in Europe, its role in Europe's construction, its hybrid institutional traits, and its often unique substance.

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.