Merger control in Europe has continued to evolve rapidly. In addition to significant changes in the national merger control regimes in Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Portugal, a new EU Merger Regulation is expected to enter into force on 1 May 2004 - a measure that will launch the most far-reaching reform of European merger control since the adoption of the EC Merger Regulation in December 1989. This updated edition offers practitioners expert guidance through the next phase of this crucial aspect of business and economic activity in Europe. Like earlier editions, this edition of "Merger Control in Europe" introduces practitioners and interested academics to the issues of merger control which are relevant when preparing an acquisition within the European Union. In order to provide insight into problem areas at each national level, and to allow possible comparisons, it includes a chapter on each of the 14 EU countries with a merger control regime, as well as one on the EU itself. In addition, as a first step towards the expected enlargement of the European Union in 2004, this edition welcomes contributions on Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Cyprus. For each jurisdiction, the major elements of merger control law - the definition of concentration, control or notification thresholds, procedure and substantive test clearance or appraisal, as well as other issues unique to each country - are all covered in some detail. For any of the jurisdictions, the practitioner should quickly be able to determine the precise scope of such important considerations as the following: concept of concentration; notification requirements; procedural time-frame; sanctions for violation of procedural rules; special rules governing banks, building and loan associations, the media sector, insurance and other specific areas of business; political intervention possibilities; publicity and confidentiality; consultation of works council; co-operation within the framework of the European Competition Authorities (ECA); test for clearance; economic benefits and disadvantages analysis; what constitutes substantial lessening of competition; remedies (both behavioural and structural); and appeal against decisions regarding the test for clearance. Each chapter, written by one or more practising lawyers from major European law firms, is grounded in the relevant law and takes into account changes in legislation and recent decisions. The book also contains a detailed introductory 20-page chart allowing readers to compare the basic elements of merger control law in all of the countries covered and in the EU.

The enforcement of the EC antitrust rules is currently the subject of much discussion. The existing system for the enforcement of Articles 81 and 82 EC has been widely criticised as inadequate. Several changes have been introduced recently, and further reforms have been proposed, but the search for a coherent and effective enforcement regime remains unfinished. Combining an in-depth examination of the law with a systematic economic analysis, Wouter Wils provides clear and illuminating answers to the major questions concerning the modernisation of EC antitrust enforcement: Should a notification system be maintained, or should the antitrust rules be enforced exclusively through deterrence? What are the respective roles of the European Commission, the national competition authorities and the national courts? At what level should fines be set? And is there a need to criminalise EC antitrust law by introducing individual penalties, in particular imprisonment? Practitioners, officials and academics will find in this timely book a wealth of information on the existing enforcement practice and on the pending proposals for reform, as well as a rigorous intellectual framework that will structure and clarify current and future debate on the modernisation of EC antitrust enforcement.

Drawing on twenty years of merger analysis literature, this single source offers practical solutions to a wide range of problems faced by specialists working in the field of mergers and acquisitions. The authors take an industrial organization approach in which effects on profits, on consumer surplus and on overall welfare are of greatest relevance. The focus is primarily on horizontal mergers, although vertical and conglomerate mergers are addressed when producers of complementary goods are involved. Among the issues and elements examined, the authors provide answers to the following: How does a merger affect the insider firm's profitability? Why may outsiders's stock market value increase or decrease following a merger? What are the expected welfare effects of a merger? What sort of arguments can be used for merger defense? How do economists model the firm's merging decision? How can the authorities simulate the price effects of a horizontal merger? Is post-merger entry likely to compensate the effects of a merger? The discussion proceeds from an analysis of the simplest exercise of market power to evermore complex merger environments. In their detailed coverage of policy evaluation of proposed acquisitions, the authors provide a merger simulation toolkit which can be applied to important recent judicial decisions in the field. This book will be of great value not only to academics in microeconomics and industrial organization, but also to lawyers and officials seeking expert practical guidance in the business or administrative responsibilities surrounding mergers and acquisitions.

In this accessible yet rigorous textbook, Patrick McNutt presents a clear and refreshing approach to a wide range of topics in law, economics and antitrust. The issues covered include duty and obligation, contracting, liability, property rights, efficient entry, compensation, oligopoly pricing, issues in strategic antitrust and merger analysis. Using a selection of case studies where appropriate, and examples based in game theory, the book examines these issues from both a law and economics and a microeconomics perspective. Emphasis is placed on a thorough assessment of the economic and legal arguments, blending the rigours of microeconomic analysis with common law standards. The analysis contained in the book will not only review, and indeed adapt neoclassical economic analysis but will also apply some of the methodology from the relatively new paradigm known as 'law and economics' to many of the issues. The book also addresses the increasing overlap between emerging approaches in public choice and in law and economics. Practitioners in competition law and regulation of utilities will draw great value from this original and pertinent volume, as will scholars in the areas of regulation, competition law, competition policy and law and economics.

The decentralization of competition law enforcement and the stimulation of private damages actions in the European Union go hand in hand with the increasingly international character of antitrust proceedings. As a consequence, there is an ever-growing need for clear and workable rules to coordinate cross-border actions, whether they are of a judicial or administrative nature: rules on jurisdiction, applicable law and recognition, as well as rules on sharing of evidence, the protection of business secrets, and the interplay between administrative and judicial procedures. This book offers in-depth analysis of these long neglected, yet important, topics. It is the fruit of a research project funded by the European Commission, which brought together experts in academia, practice, and policy-making from across Europe and the United States. The 16 chapters cover the relevant provisions of the Brussels I and Rome I and Rome II Regulations, the co-operation mechanisms provided for by Regulation 1/2003, and selected issues of US procedural law (such as discovery) that are highly relevant for transatlantic damages actions. Each contribution critically analyzes the existing legislative framework and formulates specific proposals that would consolidate and enhance cross-border antitrust litigation in Europe and beyond. (Series: Studies in Private International Law - Vol. 8)

This open access book provides answers to key open questions concerning competition policy in emerging economies, with a focus on South Eastern Europe. The contributions address two major issues. One is the design of competition policy and the national competition authorities that enforce it, including the topics of competition advocacy and state aid control; the other is the use of economic methods in competition law enforcement, especially in the cases of relevant market definition and merger control. Many lessons learned in the countries of South Eastern Europe can be applied to the emerging markets of other regions. As such, the findings presented here will be highly relevant for officials and staff at national competition authorities, advisers to legislators shaping national competition policy, competition law professionals, and university students alike.

This is the tenth in a series of volumes based on the annual workshops on EU Competition Law and Policy held at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. The volume reproduces the materials of the roundtable debate which examined the interaction between competition law and intellectual property law. The workshop participants - a group of senior representatives of the Commission and the national competition authorities of some EC Member States, reknowned international academics and legal practitioners - discussed the economic and legal issues that arise in this particular area of application of the EC competition rules, under the following headings: 1) whether the characteristics of intellectual property products/markets justify special treatment under the competition rules; 2) a critical assessment of the Block Exemption Regulation and corresponding Guidelines recently adopted in this area of EC competition law enforcement; 3) the specific enforcement issues that arise in relation to patent pools and collecting societies; and 4) specific problems related to IP in the domains of merger control and application of Article 82 EC.

This book explores how the EU's enforcement of competition law has moved from centralisation to decentralisation over the years, with the National Competition Authorities embracing more enforcement powers. At the same time, harmonisation has been employed as a solution to ensure that the enforcement of EU competition rules is not weakened and the internal market remains a level playing field. While employing a comparative law argument, the book, accordingly, analyses the need for harmonisation throughout the different stages of development of the EU's competition law enforcement (save Merger control and State Aid), the underlying rationale, and the extent to which comparative studies have been undertaken to facilitate the harmonisation process from an historical perspective. It also covers the Directives, such as the Antitrust Damages Directive and the ECN+ Directive. Investigating both public and private enforcement, it also examines the travaux preparatoires for the enforcement legislation in order to discover the drafters' intent. The book addresses the European and the Member States' perspectives, namely, the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, as harmonisation proceeds through dialogue and cooperation between the two levels. Lastly, it explores the extent to which harmonisation of the competition law enforcement framework has been accepted and implemented in the Member States' legal systems, or has led to the fragmentation of the national systems of the CEE countries.

The digital economy, broadly defined as the economy operating on the basis of interconnectivity between people and businesses, has gradually spread over the world. Although a global phenomenon, the digital economy plays out in local economic, political, and regulatory contexts. The problems thus created by the digital economy may be approached differently depending on the context. This edited collection brings together leading scholars based in Asia to detail how their respective jurisdictions respond to the competition law problems evolving out of the deployment of the digital economy. This book is timely, because it will show to what extent new competition law regimes or those with a history of lax enforcement can respond to these new developments in the economy. Academics in law and business strategies with an interest in competition law, both in Asia and more broadly, will find the insights in this edited collection invaluable. Further, this volume will be a key resource for scholars, practitioners and students.

In today's highly concentrated marketplaces, social and cultural values-such as the lifestyle connotations that manufacturers and sellers confer upon their goods-often shape consumers' prior beliefs and attitudes and affect the weight given to new information by consumers who make purchasing decisions in the marketplace. Such consumer goods present the largely unexplored problem of contemporary market regulatory theory according to which an increased amount of product differentiation has rendered everyday purchasing decisions such as the choice between an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy Note as much a matter of personal identity rather than merely one of tangible product attributes. The basic challenge for market regulators and courts in such an environment is to make markets work effectively by providing a more efficient exchange of information about consumer preferences relating to tangible product features, functions, and quality. This book demonstrates that improved legal policy can assist consumers and increase market efficiency. It acknowledges that once particular beliefs held by consumers have become culturally or socially entrenched, they are very difficult to change. What is more, changing such beliefs is no longer simply a matter of educating people through the provision of additional information. Developing a novel framework through a detailed analysis of case law relating to consumer goods markets, this book delivers an accessible introduction to the law and economics of consumer decision-making, and a forceful critique of contemporary market regulatory policy.

In this brilliantly conceived and authoritative work, the eminent intellectual property specialist Nuno Pires de Carvalho focuses on the mechanisms, obligations, and opportunities of trade secret protection under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). With the powerful knowledge base derived from his long experience both at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), he illuminates the crucial relationship of antitrust and industrial property, clearly demonstrating in contrast to much received wisdom; the intrinsic pro-competitive nature of intellectual property and of industrial property in particular.Using an extraordinary wealth of practical detail, and offering hundreds of pointed hypothetical and actual examples, Pires de Carvalho dispels the murkiness around such essential concepts and provisions as the following: the inevitable interdependence of industrial property and antitrust law; abuses of patent rights and the vexed issue of patents and monopolies; the legal implications of international exhaustion under Article 6; the meaning of balance of rights and obligations under Article 7; divestiture and the fruits doctrine under Article 32; international cooperation in identifying antitrust violations in licensing agreements; protection of confidential information in court proceedings; protection of undisclosed test data against unfair commercial use under Article 39. 3; and the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism in the context of undisclosed information.Of special value in this book is the author's far-reaching analysis of the controversial emerging field of test data protection in industrial property. "The TRIPS Regime of Antitrust and Undisclosed Information" provides a practical and insightful explanation of the meaning of the relevant TRIPS provisions, of how they should be reflected in national law and how courts are expected to enforce them. It combines an easy-to-follow article-by-article commentary on the TRIPS Agreement with a theoretical scholarly analysis that makes of it an invaluable resource to all those who wish to understand industrial property rights at a deeper level. Lawyers, judges, scholars and government officials will find an abundance of information and legal analysis here that will help them identify antitrust issues and solutions to problems of trade secrets posed by the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.

Building upon a theoretical framework and empirical research, this book provides a thought-provoking analysis of the interests, strategies and challenges that China has faced in developing its Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) in the context of economic globalization. The book comprises three main parts: Part I reviews the directions of convergence of global competition law; Part II provides a contextual analysis of China's market governance and its strategic interests; and Part III examines the latest enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law by focusing on the interactions between global actors and China, the relationships between Chinese competition and sectoral regulators, and the enforcement of global competition law norms in the Chinese context. This book is one of the first to provide a critical understanding of China's experience as a new competition regulator, set against the background of the plural sources of global competition laws.

When buying goods or services on behalf of a public authority, procurement officers must translate the buyer's needs into tender documents that are clear, lawful, and well-designed. This guide helps them in this task. Rich in practical examples, it is written for procurement practitioners at all levels of government - from the local to the international - including drafters of calls for tenders, controllers, tender evaluators, managers who authorize public expenditure, risk managers and auditors, as well as for students of public procurement law and public administration. The questions addressed in the book are, among others: How do I design a procurement process that is simple, fair and inviting? How do I choose appropriate selection criteria? How do I draw up a realistic price schedule? How do I weight my award criteria so that I get best value for money? This guide integrates rules and lessons from the EU Public Procurement Directive of 2014 and procurement case-law of the European Court of Justice. Its fundamental recommendations on how to improve the economic efficiency of procurement design however apply in any national system. About the authors Philipp Kiiver was born in 1979 in Leningrad. He obtained his law degree and his PhD from Maastricht University. From 2003 to 2013 he taught European and comparative public law and published academic research at the Maastricht law faculty, receiving an appointment as associate professor and serving for two years as associate dean. In 2013 he joined the European Parliament as a public procurement lawyer. Jakub Kodym was born in 1978 in Prague. After studies in political science and in economics at Charles University in Prague (M.A.), management studies at Nantes University (MBA), and private sector experience, he joined the EU institutions in 2007 and worked as a CGAP certified internal auditor for the European Commission and, since 2011, as a procurement officer in the European Parliament.

This book examines the present state of harmonization of unfair competition law in Europe. It discusses the particular approach to unfair competition law in the 10 new Member States and the possible impact on the future development of European unfair competition law. The book presents new insight in the importance of unfair competition law, especially in countries with a developing market economy.

"This book offers a well-argued and insightful critical assessment of the shortcomings of international trade and competition rules in tackling interventionist State measures in the context of an economic crisis. Dawar offers an evidence-rich account of the challenges that State protectionism creates for international trade liberalisation and for the protection of competition in international markets. Her insights will be particularly interesting in the context of current events leading to another surge of State economic interventionism, both for academics and for policy-makers with an interest in international trade." Dr Albert Sanchez-Graells, University of Bristol Law School "This book bursts the bubble of the self-congratulatory attitude that existing institutions, which were set up to discipline governments from a race to the bottom on economic policy, worked well after the financial crisis. These institutions may have prevented tariff wars, a big achievement compared to the time of the Great Depression. But they went along with the subsidies and state aid that governments put in place after 2007. Such flexibility on economic policy is essential in turbulent times. But these institutions are undermined if flexibility comes with a race to the bottom that shifts money away from policies for the more marginalized sections of society. At a time when the left behinds are changing the political landscape of the world, Kamala's book debunks the myth of the success of existing institutions in containing the economic fallout of the global financial crisis. It gives a sobering warning of what might unfold when institutions deal with economic challenges by turning a blind eye to their own rules for checking unfair competition." Dr Swati Dhingra, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, London School of Economomics 'An impressive contribution to our understanding of the financial crisis. Dawar's reading of bailouts and buy national through the lens of competition law and government procurement law and policy is inspirational.' Professor Mary E Footer, University of Nottingham School of Law 'The diplomatic fiction that during the crisis years regional and global trade rules ensured a level commercial playing field is skewered by Dawar's trenchant legal analysis.' Professor Simon Evenett, University of St Gallen This book examines the international regulation of crises bailouts and buy national policies. It undertakes this research with specific reference to the crisis years 2008-2012. The book includes a comparative analysis of the regulation of public procurement and subsidies aid at both multilateral and regional levels, identifying the strengths and weakness in the WTO legal framework and selected regional trade agreements (RTAs). Ultimately, the aim of this work is to provide options for improving the consistency of these laws and the regulation of these markets. This is of immediate relevance for good economic governance, as well as for managing future systemic financial crises in the interests of citizens: as tax payers and consumers.

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.

This is the twelfth in a series on EU Competition Law and Policy produced by the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. The volume reproduces the written contributions and transcripts in connection with a roundtable debate which examined the EU's enforcement policy as regards the abuse of a dominant position under Article 82 EC. The workshop participants included: 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 Federal Trade Commission; and renowned international academics, legal practitioners and professional economists. In an intense, intimate environment, this group of experts debated a number of legal and economic issues structured according to three broad lines of discussion: 1) comparisons of the concept of monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act with that of abuse of dominance under Article 82 EC; 2) a reformed approach to exclusionary unilateral conduct; and 3) exploitative unilateral conduct and related remedies.

Shortlisted for the 2008 Young Authors Inner Temple Book Prize Are parallel importers the key to free trade, breaking down long-established national barriers for the benefit of all? Or do they instead just operate in a dubious 'grey market' for their own profit, free-loading on the investment of innovators and brand owners to the ultimate detriment of everyone? Parallel trade is in turn lionised and demonised, both in legal commentary and in the mainstream press. As one might expect, the truth lies somewhere between these extremes. Once goods have been manufactured they are put onto the market in one country by the manufacturer. Parallel trade occurs when the goods are subsequently transferred to a second country by another party (the parallel trader, who may be the end consumer). The distinguishing feature of parallel trade is that the manufacturer did not intend those particular goods to end up in the second country. The goods are normally described in that country as 'parallel imports' or 'grey market goods'. The latter term is generally used to suggest that the trade, while not exactly 'black market', is not entirely lawful either. Understanding how European Community law operates to permit or restrict parallel trade involves exploring a complex matrix of rules from the fields of free movement, intellectual property, competition and regulatory law, including both private and public enforcement regimes. Where goods are parallel imported from outside the Community these rules change and new considerations come into play, such as obligations arising from the European Economic Area, the World Trade Organization and bilateral free trade agreements. The experience of Europe, which has grappled with the issues on a regional basis for more than four decades, provides a fertile source for examination of parallel trade in other jurisdictions. Christopher Stothers' comprehensive treatment successfully analyses this difficult topic, considering both Community and national decisions.

This innovative study of the role of competition law in the telecommunications industry starts from a classic perspective: While, in principle, regulation benefits social welfare and efficient allocation of resources, past regulatory experience shows that regulation can be flawed and lead to welfare harm rather than good. In the telecommunications industry specifically, inappropriately designed sector-specific remedies and regulatory delays in the introduction of new telecommunications services can hold up the development of the market towards effective competition and could incur considerable welfare losses. In addition, conventional antitrust analysis still lags behind the dynamic nature of the electronic communications markets.Milena Stoyanova sets out to establish a new understanding of the role of sector-specific regulation and competition law enforcement in the electronic communications sector, addressing such questions as the following: A* Why a new regulatory framework?A* Are sectoral regulation and competition law enforcement mutually exclusive or complementary?A* Why should electronic communications markets be regulated to conform to competition law principles?A * What does competition law add to sector-specific regulation?A* What is the relationship or proportion between regulation and competition law enforcement? An overview of the telecommunications liberalization process initiated at European Community level reveals such problems as a divergent approach of national regulatory authorities in the application of one and the same norms, inability of competition authorities to rightly assess the technicalities underlying a competition problem, and difficulty in carrying out a periodical oversight of compliance with the competition law remedies. The author discusses the legal basis and rationale for the application of the essential facility doctrine to the electronic communications sector, and argues for new regulatory responses to the emergence of collective dominant firms in an oligopolistic setting and to the potential of multifirm conduct to restrict competition through price squeezing and other tactics. The book concludes with a specific case study on the harmonisation of recent Bulgarian legislation with the European Community sector-specific and competition law regimes a propos the electronic communications sector. Effective competition in the electronic communications market is crucial for securing the dynamic role of the entire information and communications technologies sector, of which electronic communications form the largest segment. The sound and well-informed recommendations in this book ably address common and persistent problems, making Competition Problems in Liberalized Telecommunications a forward-looking mainstay for practitioners and other professionals involved in all aspects of the field.

Competition policy is in the process of adoption in dozens of nations worldwide, at a time when competition laws have necessarily become applicable to such new fields as trade, investment, intellectual property rights, information technology, and global consumer protection. Although vigorous enforcement - especially across borders - remains the most serious challenge to global success, it is also important to recognize that the established American-European model of competition policy may not be the "right thing" for countries with radically different cultural traditions, especially less-developed countries. This book explores the prospects for competition policy, its likely development, and its ever-more-central role in the world trade regime. With this book, interested parties may benefit from the perspectives of scholars and policymakers representing Asia Pacific, Europe, and North and South America. Issues investigated include: the costs of absorbing a new technology; distinct and evolving national competition policies and the fabric of world trade; extraterritorial enforcement and co-operation agreements; criteria for "material injury" in international trade rules; collusive technology transfer barriers; the re-emergence of transnational cartels; and the tendency of anti-dumping rules to foster cartelization. The major competition policy issues on the international agenda - the harmonization of national policies and international trade rules; the integration of intellectual property rights, technology transfer, and investment; and enforcement co-operation across borders - are all analyzed in depth from many different angles. This is a valuable book for practitioners, government officials, and academics in this critical area of contemporary law and policy.

During its first fifteen years, the EU's merger control system, unlike most others in the world, offered only minimal possibilities for taking efficiency gains into account as a mitigating factor that might offset the anti-competitive effects of a merger. This book examines the background to a change in the legal framework which occurred in May 2004 with the entry into force of a new Merger Regulation that for the first time explicitly recognises the possibility of an efficiency defence. European Merger Control assesses the likely impact of this new regulation, and discusses the pros and cons of the efficiency defence, how other merger control systems deal with efficiencies, how the investigation process can be organised to accommodate the analysis of efficiency gains and the main theoretical and practical problems which arise when anti-competitive effects have to be weighed against efficiency gains. With contributions from distinguished academics in the field of industrial economics and officials with practical experience of merger control, this book will be of interest to consulting economists practising in the field of competition policy, competition lawyers, micro-economists and officials of competition authorities.

Competition law belongs to the traditional core of Community internal market law and continues to play an important part in EU law and the case-law of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Justice of the European Communities. Competition law does not form a static and hermetic domain but should, perhaps now more than ever before, be seen in a broader context and as a dynamic area of law. The topics in this book include pure competition law issues, such as who should be held accountable and responsible for competition law infringements, when is a price so high that it becomes abusive, or the object or effect test under Article 82 EC. Moreover, they include competition law issues in a broader context, such as the influence of competition law on free movement rules, the application of competition law to international maritime transport, consumer interests in the application of competition law, unfair competition law and trade marks, confidentiality issues, the interplay between administrative law and competition law, or the principle of fiscal neutrality, not forgetting State aid issues. This book draws together contributions from well-known experts in EU law and competition law in particular, being either current or former members or referendaires at one of the Community Courts. It is a tribute to Judge Virpi Tiili, who, when leaving the Court of First Instance in autumn 2009, will be remembered for her long and outstanding contribution to the Court's case-law, notably in areas such as competition law and intellectual property law.