Of the major industries formerly characterized by a high degree of state monopoly control, telecommunications is proving to be increasingly susceptible to market failure. The fundamental causes of this difficulty, according to the author of this far-reaching analysis, are two-fold: abusive behaviour of incumbents aimed at foreclosing competitors, and the regulatory challenges posed by the technological convergence of the telecommunications, media, and IT sectors. The answers, Dr. Nikolinakos shows with extraordinary rigour and detail, lie in the enforcement of specially-crafted competition rules and proportionate, targeted sectoral regulation. This book presents the most thorough going 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 undertaking s 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. Numerous legislative and policy documents are presented in full detail, with analysis taking into account the comments delivered by all interested parties (e.g., the European Commission, national competent authorities, and market players such as fixed incumbent operators, alternative operators, internet service providers, mobile operators, cable operators, associations of undertakings, and associations of consumers). No other book will provide interested readers with such crucial insight into the reasons behind the Commission s strategy and the often contradictory interests of market players. Because the argument is scrupulously grounded in informed awareness of existing and emerging realities, this landmark volume will quickly establish itself as a resource to be consulted and followed for many years to come.

This book consists of contributions exploring from different perspectives the 'images' of the consumer in EU law. The images of the consumer form the foundation for various EU policies, more or less directly oriented towards the goal of consumer protection. The purpose of the volume is to establish what visions of the consumer there are in different contexts of EU law, whether they are consistent, and whether EU law's engagement with consumer-related considerations is sincere or merely instrumental to the achievement of other goals. The chapters discuss how consumers should be protected in EU contract, competition, free movement and trade mark law. They reflect on the limits of the consumer empowerment rationale as the basis for EU consumer policy. The chapters look also at the variety of concerns consumers might have, including the cost of goods and services, access to credit, ethical questions of consumption, the challenges of excessive choice and the possibility to influence the content of regulatory measures, and explore the significance of these issues for the EU's legislative and judicial process.

This is the thirteenth in a series on EU Competition Law and Policy produced under the auspices of the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. The volume contains the written contributions of numerous competition policy experts, together with the transcripts of a roundtable debate which examined the subject of "settlements" between enforcers of competition law and defendant companies in cartel cases and in other types of antitrust cases. The Workshop participants included: -- senior judges from major jurisdictions (the European Union, Germany and the United States); -- senior enforcement officials and policy makers from the European Commission, from the national competition authorities of certain EU Member States and from the US Department of Justice and the US Federal Trade Commission; and -- renowned international international academics, legal practitioners and professional economists. In an intense, intimate environment, this group of experts debated a number of legal and economic issues pertaining to two broad lines of discussion: 1) settlements and plea agreements in cartel cases, including their links with leniency programs and with private enforcement; and 2) settlements in "commitment" cases decided under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 and under comparable procedures of national law.

Eleonora Poli analyses how ideas and material interests have come to determine the evolution of antitrust policies in the USA, EU, Japan and BRICS. She argues that three major economic crises together with market globalisation have changed governments' perceptions of market competition, giving rise to a neo-liberal global phase.

Conventional wisdom holds that robust enforcement of intellectual property (IP) right suppress competition and innovation by shielding incumbents against the entry threats posed by smaller innovators. That assumption has driven mostly successful efforts to weaken US patent protections for over a decade. This book challenges that assumption. In Innovators, Firms, and Markets, Jonathan M. Barnett confronts the reigning policy consensus by analyzing the relationship between IP rights, firm organization, and market structure. Integrating tools and concepts from IP and antitrust law, institutional economics, and political science, real-world understandings of technology markets, and empirical insights from the economic history of the US patent system, Barnett provides a novel framework for IP policy analysis. His cohesive framework explains how robust enforcement of IP rights enables entrepreneurial firms, which are rich in ideas but poor in capital, to secure outside investment and form the cooperative relationships needed to transform a breakthrough innovation into a marketable product. The history of the US patent system and firms' lobbying tendencies show that weakening patent protections removes a critical tool for entrants to challenge incumbents that enjoy difficult-to-match commercialization and financing capacities. Counterintuitively, the book demonstrates that weak IP rights are often the best entry barrier the state can provide to protect entrenched incumbents against disruptive innovators. By challenging common assumptions and offering a powerful integrated framework for understanding how innovation happens and the law's role in that process, Barnett's Innovators, Firms, and Markets provides important insights into how IP law shapes our economy.

Competition litigation is expected to increase dramatically in light of the application of the modernised competition law regime and new procedural rules. EU Competition Law: Procedures and Remedies (EU Competition Law Library) provides essential practical reference on the enforcement of competition law by EU and national courts and competition authorities. It derives from a section in the looseleaf Law of the EU (Vaughan & Robertson, eds), and is made available here for the benefit of those who don't subscribe to the looseleaf. The authors offer their expert knowledge of the practice and procedure of these bodies and the substantial and growing body of case law.

The European Competition Law Annual 2002 is the seventh in a series of volumes following the annual workshops on EU Competition Law and Policy held at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University in Florence. The volume reproduces the materials of the roundtable debate that took place at the seventh Workshop.

The dramatic increase in the number of competition agencies in the last few years, in the context of a globalized economy, has made international cooperation a core element of competition enforcement. As more and more mergers, cartels, and unilateral restrictive business practises incur a cross-border dimension, cooperation among competition agencies helps achieve effective and coherent enforcement. In this context, it is important that competition authorities adopt proactive and cooperative approaches vis-a-vis their sister agencies in order to tackle these new challenges."

Unfair trading practices such as dumping and the granting of subsidies have long been identified as threats to open markets. Yet, despite decades of international trading rules, global markets are still jeopardized by practices which can cause material injury to industries and put employment at risk. The European Union has been a leader in its determination to ensure that its industries are not disadvantaged by such practices, that Community interests are defended, and that fair competition is restored where needed. The basic texts which form the legal basis of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations in the Community entered into force in 1996 and 1997. The procedures developed in these texts, as amended, and in their corresponding regulations, are the subject of this extremely helpful guide. Practitioners who must follow these often complex procedures will find precise guidelines for the substantive determinations that must be made - such as calculating the "material injury," determining the cause of injury, and applying the "Community interest" test - and then be able to move confidently through every procedural step, including the following: initial complaint; questionnaires; "confrontation meetings"; investigations by Commission officials; calculating the dumping/subsidies margin; commenting on the Commission's provisional decision; requesting review of measures and refunds; and judicial review. Throughout the presentation, the author describes relevant cases and actual measures taken. Tables of cases and measures are included, as is a bibliography. Business people and their counsel, whether engaged in trade within the EU or between any country and an EU Member State, will benefit enormously from the detailed guidance offered in this incomparable volume. The book will also be invaluable to academics and policymakers as an unclouded analysis of anti-dumping/anti-subsidies procedures under EC law.

Since the Electronic Communications Regulatory Framework of 2002 introduced competition law principles and methodologies into the regulatory regime, the so-called Article 7 procedure has (in the opinion of many) become no less than an impenetrable labyrinth. National regulatory authorities are obliged to analyse markets to identify undertakings which enjoy 'significant market power' - a regime which has fostered troublesome and unresolved divergence between regulators and competition authorities and left both practitioners and academics in a particularly undefined sphere of interpretation and action.

This study deals with issues of particular importance in the EMU perspective. State measures may occur in the sense that they exclude market access for opt-out state economic operators and preventing them from competing with domestic economic operators, that is, restrictions on free movement. After the removal of such barriers there might still be state measures that may negatively affect competition within the common market. Such distortions of competition may occur due to differences between national legislation or other forms of state intervention on the market. They affect the prerequisites for the carrying out of economic activities, and may often result in the fact that out-of-state economic operators have to work in a market where a domestic competitor has notable advantages due to support by authorities, legislation or economic support. This may threaten the efficiency and proper functioning of the EMU. The remaining question is how such distortions can be dealt with. Which distortions are to be regarded as serious threats against the market integration and must be removed? Which priorities have to be made? The study aims at giving possible solutions to the above-mentioned issues, thus contributing to a field which, at the beginning of the 21st century, has only been examined by legal scholars to a minor extent.

This country-by-country guide to merger control law gives business people and their counsel helpful information needed to proceed confidently toward a successful transnational merger. For each of twenty major jurisdictions - including the USA, EU, China, India, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Vietnam and most EU countries - this book describes: procedure for antitrust clearance, if necessary; rules and criteria for approval; restrictions on merger dimensions; relevant market definition criteria; and ancillary restrictions. Whenever possible, actual national notification forms are reproduced so they may be prepared in advance. The authors, each an expert in the business law of his or her own country, offer practical advice on managing the transaction and avoiding pitfalls. A detailed general introduction highlights shared patterns, as well as distinctions, among the merger control regimes of the various jurisdictions.

This book gathers international and national reports from across the globe on key questions in the field of antitrust and intellectual property.The first part discusses the allocation of liability for infringement of antitrust laws between corporations and individuals. The book explores the criminal or administrative sanctions available against corporations, companies or group of companies, and individuals, such as employees or directors. A detailed international report explores the major trends and challenges in this field and provides an excellent comparative study of this complex and challenging subject. The second part examines whether intellectual property rights are sufficiently protected to ensure a fair return on investments made by manufacturers and distributors. This question comes at a time where distribution is facing deep and radical changes with the Internet. To what extent this is an opportunity or a threat to the sustainability of distribution systems of differentiated and IP protected goods is the question. This book brings together the current legal responses across a number of European countries and elsewhere in the world, all summarised and elaborated in an international report. The book also includes the resolutions passed by the General Assembly of the International League of Competition Law (LIDC) following a debate on each of these topics, which include proposed solutions and recommendations. The LIDC is a long-standing international association that focuses on the interface between competition law and intellectual property law, including unfair competition issues.

The maintenance of a fair, competitive market among member states is critical to the functioning of the EU economy. In this book, the first comprehensive, unifying view of market definition, Miguel Ferro adeptly explores the different economic-legal issues that arise in EU competition law. Featuring an exhaustive analysis of European case law, this astute work provides a succinct and nuanced guide to market definition within a variety of markets and contexts. Insightful and timely, it explores the different economic-legal issues that arise in European case law, distinguishing economic debates from the legal issues involved. In so doing, it seeks to prevent the distortions to the legal method that can result from adopting a more piecemeal approach. Market Definition in EU Competition Law provides a crucial introduction to the topic and will be an important resource for students and scholars of European competition law. Practitioners and judges will also benefit from the extensive analysis of case law and the practical examples.

The European Commission's review of its approach to abuse of dominance under Article 82 of the EC Treaty has been stimulating debate for several years. In July 2005, the Commission published its consultation paper 'An economic approach to Article 82, ' in which the Economic Advisory Group for Competition Policy (EAGCP) questioned the merits of the traditional formalistic approach to Article 82 EC cases. This paper advocated an effects-based approach focused on competitive harm. Then the Commission published its 'Discussion Paper on the application of Article 82 of the Treaty to exclusionary abuses' (the 'Discussion Paper'). This eagerly awaited document, although more restrictive in nature than the 'EAGCP Paper, ' has been viewed by many as a first practical step toward a more economic approach to Article 82 EC. The debate over the scope and analysis of Article 82 EC has raised important questions as to its past and present application. This collection of essays by international experts explores the boundaries of Article 82 EC and considers recent developments in its application. The first four chapters look at the economics, law, and enforceability of the proposed reform. Chapters five and six consider the interaction between competition law and intellectual property rights. The seventh chapter considers the provision of remedies in cases of refusal to supply and the eighth chapter explores the other side of the abuse story, namely exploitative practices, focusing on the treatment of excessive price

Once Brazil came to a clear awareness of its prodigious global economic power a few short years ago, the government quickly undertook a number of sweeping procedural reforms in its competition system that not only made the Brazilian antitrust enforcement authority a model for newer competition agencies worldwide but also fuelled the propulsion of Brazil to an unprecedented level of trading activity. Now, this thorough and informative volume describes and analyses, from a practitioner's point of view, the procedural details and economic underpinnings of this remarkable new antitrust regime. With close attention to US and EU comparisons, as well as to the world institutions that incorporate an antitrust dimension, the authors' in-depth coverage encompasses such aspects as the following: regional and global competition cooperation agreements; Brazilian antitrust methodology of analysis (for mergers and behaviours controls); procedures, agreements, and statistics on merger control (concentration acts); veto (full rejection), partial clearance (remedies), preliminary clearance all under a case law approach; definition of "economic group" and the challenge of private equity funds; anticompetitive behaviours, boundaries, liabilities, trends; collaboration among competitiors: safe harbours and risky areas; Brazilian leniency policy, statistics, updated rules; settlement agreements on Brazilian competition regime (mergers and investigations); penalties for violations either in mergers or conducts controls; judicial review or challenge of agency decisions: how CADE is succeeding in Courts; private damages in Brazil: evolving trend to be considered in risk analysis; competition and intellectual property: general rules, main cases and safety zones.

This work examine the development of national competition laws and policies in the European Community. Scholars have observed a gradual convergence of national European cartel laws towards EC competition law in recent years. Furthermore, most writers ascribe an important role in this convergence process to the influence of and pressure from the European Community. This is a remarkable conclusion considering the diversity that could be noticed only decades ago and the fact that the European Community has taken no direct legal action to harmonise national competition laws. These observations give rise to two questions: First, what is the extent of this convergence process and on which aspects do differences persist? Secondly, what have been the driving forces behind this development, and especially, what has been the role of the European Community in it? The study concentrates on three countries, namely Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, which represented different models only some decades ago. The book aims at providing more insight into the development of competition policy in the EC and into the adaptation of national regulatory policy to EC law in general. This book should be of interest to lawyers, political scientists, and economists working in the field of competition policy, as well as to scholars interested in European integration in general.

Antitrust laws and proceedings in Europe, both at the Community and national levels, shape the European and international business landscape profoundly. It is therefore essential that business leaders and legal practitioners remain informed of the most important antitrust law developments and their effect on the business world. Antitrust Developments in Europe 2006 provides a comprehensive and practical commentary on the past year's major developments in EC and national antitrust law. The topics covered include: Vertical Restraints; Horizontal Agreements; Abuse of Market Power; Mergers & Acquisitions; Joint Ventures; State Aid; Policy and Procedures.The insightful and concise analysis of major antitrust actions contained in this yearbook will be invaluable to antitrust legal practitioners, in-house counsel, businesspeople and others with an interest in the field. Cleary Gottlieb Steen Hamilton, with one of the most sophisticated and highly-respected European antitrust law practices, has systematically and meticulously monitored antitrust developments in Europe since the early 1970s. This volume represents the combined efforts and expertise of Cleary Gottlieb's antitrust practitioners in this rapidly-changing field.

This is the eleventh in the series on EU competition law and policy produced by the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. The volume reproduces the materials from a roundtable debate which examined the enforcement of the prohibition on cartels. The workshop participants senior representatives of the Commission and of the national competition authorities of some EC Member States, renowned international academics, and legal practitioners discussed the economic and legal issues that arise in this particular area, including the unearthing of cartels the evidence, the institutional framework, and the tools of enforcement.

Based on a conference of national authorities and leading scholars in antitrust and competition law and policy, Competition Policy in the Global Trading System: Perspectives from the EU, Japan and the USA presents twenty insightful essays which together provide an in-depth assessment of current achievements and impasses, as well as a variety of possible ways forward. Among the relevant factors in this progression, the authors discuss such approaches as:
- bilateral and regional international cooperation agreements;
- WTO competition rules, enforceable through the dispute resolution procedure; and
- international development of US, EU, and Japanese antitrust laws.

The objective of this book is twofold. First, it presents the economics of minority shareholdings, under both merger and antitrust law. In particular, economic analysis provides both an overall assessment of minority shareholdings in the context of concentrations, and Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and the examination of the link between non-controlling minority shareholdings, merger control and antitrust law. Second, the book also provides a legal assessment and an analysis of selected case law. According to settled European case law, minority shareholdings are analysed not only under Regulation 139/2004, but also under Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. Nevertheless, according to current enforcement practice at European and international levels, several national competition authorities have adopted different approaches. The million dollar question is whether the existing regulatory framework is sufficient to cover all possible cases. In summary, the book will be a useful tool for students, practitioners, researchers, economic and legal experts and competition authorities. It provides a comprehensive survey of the subject, which has been missing until now and answers many questions that have been raised in the literature in the last decades.

This book treats one of the thorniest issues in contemporary antitrust theory: the role of tacit collusion among oligopolistic undertakings and the instruments to apply competition law against its harmful consequences. The author builds a very thorough parallel among US and European legal traditions, enforcement possibilities and concrete choices against tacit collusion. The result is an advanced and entertaining reading to be recommended both to lawyers and economists that study and practice antitrust.' - Pier Luigi Parcu, European University Institute, ItalyBy examining the issue of collusion in EU and US competition law, this book suggests possible strategies for improving the antitrust enforcement against parallelism, by exploiting the most advanced achievements of economic analysis. The book contains a suggested approach to collusion, in ex ante and ex post perspectives. By moving from the analysis of the state of art, in terms of law, case law, and scholarship, Marilena Filippelli analyses inconsistencies and failures in the current antitrust enforcement toward collusion and develops a workable parameter for the issue of collective dominance. The most innovative part of this work goes beyond the analysis of collective dominance itself and involves the interference of arts. 101 and 102. The conclusion is a re-definition of the relationship between those rules - from dichotomy to redundancy. Finally, the book highlights the antitrust significance of semi-collusion as a strategy made of collusion and competition. The author considers economic models equalling, as for the effects, collusion and semi-collusion and the case law supporting the qualification of semi-collusion as a species of collusion. The analysis involves both US and EU systems under the highly topical economic-oriented approach. It also contains an original view of European antitrust prohibitions. Because of its contents and its approach, this book will be attractive to every academic interested in antitrust law. Moreover, the well-documented research on parallelism, involving law, case law and scholarship, makes this book interesting also for competition authorities and antitrust lawyers. Contents: Introduction Part I: Parallelism in US Competition Law 1. US Antitrust Policy Towards Parallelism: The Ex Post Enforcement 2. The US Merger Policy Towards Collusion Part II: Parallelism in EU Competition Law 3. First Evidence of the 'Oligopoly Problem- in the Enforcement of EU Antitrust Laws 4. The First Stage of EU Oligopoly Control: Shaping the Category of Collective Dominance 5. Airtours and its Aftermath Part III: A Suggested Approach to Collective Dominance 6. Coordinated Effects in EU Merger Control 7. Abuses of Collective Dominance Section I: Taxonomy of Collective Dominance Section 2: Dealing with Tacit Collusion 8. Lessons from Collective Dominance: Re-thinking the Relationship of Articles 101 and 102 Concluding Remarks: EU and US Approach to the Oligopoly Problem: An Economic-based Trend toward Convergence Bibliography Index

The recent "modernisation" of EC competition law has heightened the need for international arbitration practitioners to accommodate EC competition law into their practice and has made it necessary for EC competition law practitioners to understand the role of arbitration as a central means for the private enforcement of EC competition law. This very useful guide offers a convenient one-volume analysis of the expectations and requirements of the Community legal order upon international arbitration, as well as a dependable source of answers to the EC competition law questions which arbitration practitioners will ordinarily be faced with. It provides counsel and arbitrators with a basis upon which to identify and manage competition law issues arising in international arbitrations, with detailed coverage of such matters as: the main features of EC competition law; enforcement of EC competition law and the place of international arbitration in this enforcement; the relevant interrelations between arbitration proceedings and the European Commission, Member State competition authorities, and Member State courts; the roles of important players on litigation teams dealing with EC competition law questions; relevant economic concepts; particular matters under Dutch, English, French, German and Swiss law, including private remedies; and the application of mandatory norms by arbitration tribunals. With clear references to all materials relevant to EC competition law questions ordinarily arising in international arbitrations, this book will be of interest to international litigation practitioners in Europe and globally, in particular arbitrators and arbitration counsel, as well as to EC competition law practitioners. Law makers and regulators will also find here a valuable perspective on shaping the future relationship between arbitration and competition law. Phillip Landolt is a member of the Bars of England and Wales and Ontario, Canada. With a doctorate in the civil law of obligations, he is also a registered foreign lawyer in Geneva, Switzerland, where he practises international arbitration with the law firm Tavernier Tschanz. He has post-graduate academic qualifications in EC competition law, and practised EU and competition law for over three years in London and Brussels before relocating back to Geneva to resume his international arbitration practice.