The fast-evolving relationship between the promotion of welfare-enhancing competition and the balanced protection of intellectual property (IP) rights has attracted the attention of policymakers, analysts and scholars. This interest is inevitable in an environment that lays ever greater emphasis on the management of knowledge and innovation and on mechanisms to ensure that the public derives the expected social and economic benefits from this innovation and the spread of knowledge. This book looks at the positive linkage between IP and competition in jurisdictions around the world, surveying developments and policy issues from an international and comparative perspective. It includes analysis of key doctrinal and policy issues by leading academics and practitioners from around the globe and a cutting-edge survey of related developments across both developed and developing economies. It also situates current policy developments at the national level in the context of multilateral developments, at WIPO, WTO and elsewhere.

This book focuses on market law and policy in sub-Saharan Africa, showing how markets can be harnessed by poorer and developing economies to help make the markets work for them: to help them integrate into the world economy and provide a better standard of living for their people while preserving their values of inclusive development. It explores uses of power both by dominant firms, often multinationals, and incumbent governments and cronies, to ring-fence their market positions and deprive rivals - often the indigenous people - from fair access to markets and highlights how competition authorities are pushing back and winning fair access, lowering prices of goods and services especially for the poorer population. The book also examines the next level up - regionalism - and provides the facts that show how regionalism has so far failed to meet its promise of freeing markets from cross-border restraints by large firms that operate across national borders. On the more technical side, the book takes a deep look at the competition policies of sets of nations in sub-Saharan Africa - West, South-eastern, and South. It examines the performance of the competition authorities of particular nations, including how they handle cartels, monopolies and mergers; their standards of illegality, and their methodologies for incorporating public interest values into their analyses. Observing the good works by a number of the national competition authorities, the book is optimistic about the role of the national competition authorities in protecting the people from abuses of economic power, and, perhaps in the future, the role of regional authorities and less formal networks in promoting an African voice in defence of competition.

The prominence of the Advocate General is one of the most distinctive, and controversial features of the European Court of Justice. The Advocate General and EC Law is the first comprehensive study of the Advocate General and his role in the development of EC Law. The book examines the history of the role, the questions over its future, and the role's importance in the procedures of the Court.
This volume also analyzes the contribution of some of the most influential Advocates General to the development of specific aspects of Community law, including Francis Jacobs on intellectual property, Walter van Gerven on discrimination and Jean Pierre Warner on competition procedure. It explores the contributions of a range of Advocates General to specific principles of Community Law, including state liability and direct effect.

This sweeping, comparative study of taxation in the United States and Australia shows that even as governments in the Western world have become increasingly sophisticated tax collectors, a competitive and ruthless market in advice on tax avoidance has developed. The same competitive forces in the late twentieth century which have driven down prices and sparked efficiencies in the production of fast food or computer parts have helped stimulate the markets for "bads" like tax shelters and problem gambling. Braithwaite draws the surprising conclusion that effective regulation could actually flip markets in vice to markets of virtue. Essential reading for anyone involved in policy, governance, and regulation, Markets in Vice, Markets in Virtue provides a blueprint for restoring the equity of Western tax systems and a breakthrough theory of how regulators can support markets in virtue and curtail markets in vice.

The free movement of persons and services are key elements, alongside the free movement of goods and capital, in the fundamental freedoms which underpin the European internal market. In recent years two key themes have emerged from the case law of the European Court of Justice. The first is convergence in the case law on the free movement of goods, persons, and services in order to ensure the operation of the internal market through the prohibition of discrimination and the outlawing of unjustified obstacles to free movement. The second is the case law on the rights which flow from the introduction of citizenship of the European Union, which offer constitutional rights for individuals. The tensions between these two lines of authority can be explained through a fresh approach to the analysis and synthesis of the Treaty rules and secondary legislation of the European Community, and of the case law of the European Court of Justice on free movement of persons and services. This approach is based on distinguishing between those rules which relate mainly to the regulation of business activities in the internal market, and those which are mainly concerned with individual rights for citizens of the European Union. The result is a detailed overview of the law relating to workers, establishment, and services in the EU in this modern context.

In this book Peritz analyses how free competition has signified both freedom from oppressive government and freedom from private economic power. Peritz shows how these two complex yet distinct and sometimes contradictory images have influenced government policy and continue to inspire public debate over political economy in America.

Typically, antitrust law problems do not start out as punitive damages or merger control proceedings before antitrust authorities. Instead, they initially arise in daily business life when designing contracts and negotiating purchase and sales conditions. This work discusses the full range of critical problems that occur in each subject area and offers concrete suggestions for managing them.

The edited volume will adopt a thematic approach to some controversial issues in the area of competition law and IP in China and will include contributions from leading academics and practitioners. The combination of the editors as well as the contributors' expertise on competition and IP law, and their practical experience and perspectives, guarantees that the book will present a high quality up to date, detailed analysis of the different perspectives that these jurisdictions take in the enforcement of competition and IP law. The volume discusses the current trends as well as the future challenges of the enforcement in these areas. The book aims to further the understanding of these controversial and fast paced issues by offering insights and recommendations on the basis of a comprehensive and thoughtful analysis. It therefore aims to become the ultimate point of reference to scholars, law and policy makers, and other stakeholders.

This book examines the legislative history and the political economy of the Sherman Antitrust Act--the main federal statute that regulates economic activity in the United States. Tracing the evolution of the antitrust movement in the United States since 1890, this collection of essays examines the role of government in regulating markets, and the balance it and its critics seek between the goal of limited government and the protection of free, open and competitive markets, With markets today being more international in nature and the world economy being globalized, Americans need to rethink how laws have defined markets and the implications for international transactions. Given the recent changes in Europe, this book has a significant contribution to make to the intellectual understanding of antitrust laws impact on American business here and abroad, on the European Economic Community (EEC) as it creates a single market by 1992, and on Eastern Europe as it moves to a market economy.

Much of antitrust law scholarship has focused on substantive legal issues - theories of harm and changing law and policy. Surprisingly, there has been very little work that is comparative, on a fundamental element that is a critical building block to effective policy - procedural fairness. Procedural fairness encompasses issues of transparency and due process. Procedural fairness has been an important issue in global antitrust for some time. The types of due process concerns raised globally often relate to the lack of effective representation, the use of industrial policy by third parties, and procedural tools that do not allow for the most effective advocacy to lead to efficient outcomes. This book focuses on these issues and teases out common problems and distinct issues in particular jurisdictions, allowing for a rethink of creating a more effective system for procedural fairness, and explores these issues in each jurisdiction, along with highlights of particular cases in which due process issues have emerged.

Competition law is a complex and constantly evolving area of law which affects every aspect of the market economy, including the financial services sector. This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the application of the EU competition rules to banking and insurance industries. This book is divided into two parts: the first part explores the application of Articles 101, 102 and 107 TFEU to the insurance industry. Emphasis is placed on recent changes which have progressively eroded the block exemption regime that traditionally benefited the insurance industry. In the second part of the book, focus is on the application of the Articles of TFEU to the banking industry, with specific reference to card payment systems, which give rise to some of the most intricate antitrust issues in the financial services sector. Relevant Commission decisions and European Court of Justice case law are discussed and suggestions are made for an alternative regulatory framework through comparative analysis of US regulations. This book will be an invaluable reference point for legal practitioners specialising in EU Competition law, as well as postgraduate students and academic researchers working in competition law and the financial services sector.

In the early decades of European integration, the enforcement of EU competition law was highly centralized. Virtually all enforcement actions under Articles 101 and 102 TFEU were initiated by the European Commission. More recently, the enforcement of EU competition law has become less centralized - many would say even decentralized. In 2004, essentially in an effort to increase enforcement capacity in the wake of EU enlargement, the involvement of Member State competition authorities was significantly reinforced by national authorities being given power to pursue infringements of EU competition law, largely on the basis of their domestic enforcement regimes. This combination of decentralization and enforcement autonomy raises questions about the relationship between EU law and national law, as well as about the costs of enforcement. Sanctions in EU Competition Law links these questions by analyzing how competences in the area of sanctions are distributed between EU and national law, and how this influences the costs of enforcement. The author's conclusions - which highlight the economic implications of the choices made by competition authorities, courts, and legislators - will be of use to all the above in further developing EU competition policy. The thesis on which this book is based was declared runner-up in the 2013 Concurrences Awards. (Series: Hart Studies in Competition Law)

This study of the normative justification for the use of criminal sanctions as a means of cartel control goes beyond the historical and economic viewpoints by adding a normative evaluation of anti-cartel regimes and analysing cartel control in the USA, Europe and the UK. The analysis is unique in seeking to establish why, in a liberal society, criminal sanctions should apply to individuals who participate in this sort of activity. Although cartels have been rhetorically likened to theft and fraud, there are significant differences. Notwithstanding these differences, Cartels, Markets and Crime presents an argument for the criminalisation of economic collusion and, with this argument in mind, analyses the regimes of the USA, EU and UK and considers the possibility of global convergence.

The most controversial area in competition policy is that of exclusionary practices, where actions are taken by dominant firms to deter competitors from challenging their market positions. Economists have been struggling to explain such conduct and to guide policy-makers in designing sensible enforcement rules. In this book, authors Chiara Fumagalli, Massimo Motta, and Claudio Calcagno explore predatory pricing, rebates, exclusive dealing, tying, and vertical foreclosure, through a blend of theory and practice. They develop a general framework which builds on and extends existing economic theories, drawing upon case law, discussions of cases and other practical considerations to identify workable criteria that can guide competition authorities to assess exclusionary practices. Along with analyses of policy implications and insights applied to case studies, the book provides practitioners with non-technical discussions of the issues at hand, while guiding economics students with dedicated technical sections with rigorous formal models.

A trenchant account of an unacknowledged driver of inequality and wage stagnation in America: the abandonment of antitrust law, which has allowed corporations to combine into a smaller number of massive conglomerates whose market dominance robs workers of their bargaining power. The consequences of the massive consolidation wave in corporate America that began decades ago are now increasingly apparent: labor markets are no longer competitive. Since the 1970s, Americans have seen income and wealth inequality skyrocket-and job opportunities stagnate. There are many theories of why this happened, including the decline of organized labor and the introduction of tax policies that favored the rich. However, another crucial event was the precipitous decline in antitrust enforcement that began in earnest during the Reagan administration. With ever-increasing combination and consolidation, workers had fewer options to turn to. In How Antitrust Law Failed Workers, Eric Posner documents the role of antitrust in our economy and why it failed. Only through reforming antitrust law can we shield workers from employers' overwhelming market power. As Posner explains, antitrust laws were created to protect the labor market by attacking monopolies, like Facebook and Google today, that are able to either charge high prices or degrade the quality of their services because customers cannot switch to competitors. Antitrust laws are also used to attack business cartels that can fix prices. In recent years, it has become clear that firms with market power not only charge higher prices; they also suppress wages and output. Many employers use anticompetitive devices-like covenants not to compete for workers and no-poaching agreements-to advance their market power at the expense of workers. Posner shares stories that illustrate how the problem is playing out on the ground, and then contextualizes what is going on via a concise history of the American economy and labor relations since the 1980s. Essential reading for anyone interested in fighting economic inequality, How Antitrust Failed Workers also offers a sharp primer on the true nature of the American economy-one that is increasingly uncompetitive and tilted against workers.

An approach to reinvigorating economic competition that doesn't break up corporate giants, but compels them to share their technology, data, and knowledge "Bessen is a master of unpacking the nuances of a complex array of interrelated trends to build a coherent story of how the promise of the democratized Internet ended up under the control of just a few. Read The New Goliaths to see how the forest came to have only room for a few tall trees with the rest of us in the undergrowth."-Joshua Gans, coauthor of Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence Historically, competition has powered progress under capitalism. Companies with productive new products rise to the top, but sooner or later, competitors come along with better innovations and disrupt the threat of monopoly. Dominant firms like Walmart, Amazon, and Google argue that this process of "creative destruction" prevents them from becoming too powerful or entrenched. But the threat of competition has sharply decreased over the past twenty years, and today's corporate giants have come to power by using proprietary information technologies to create a tilted playing field. This development has increased economic inequality and social division, slowed innovation, and allowed dominant firms to evade government regulation. In the face of increasing calls to break up the largest companies, James Bessen argues that a better way to restore competitive balance and dynamism is to encourage or compel these companies to share technology, data, and knowledge.

The Politics of European Competition Regulation provides an original and theoretically informed account of the political power struggles that have shaped the evolution of European competition regulation over the past six decades. Applying a critical political economy perspective, this book analyses the establishment and development of competition regulation at European Community and national level since the 1950s. It puts forth the central argument that competition regulation came to reflect the broader shift towards a neoliberal order since the 1980s. Buch-Hansen and Wigger argue that this shift, which took place against the background of the gradual transnationalisation of capitalist production and the economic crisis of the late 1970s, was driven by the European Commission in alliance with the emerging transnational capitalist class. The authors examine the political responses to the current global economic crisis in the fields of state aid, cartel prosecution and merger control and conclude that an alternative type of competition regulation, which forms part of a much broader transformation of the current socioeconomic order, is needed. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of (global) political economy, European integration and competition law.

The modern era of competition law in New Zealand began with the Commerce Act 1986. Since then, a steady and impressive corpus of case law had traversed all the usual major areas of antitrust law: cartels, resale price maintenance, exclusive dealing, tying, group boycotts, monopolization, mergers and acquisitions, exempted sectors, and the role of economic evidence. This volume explains the rationale for the various major reforms, the ongoing contestation between the Harvard and Chicago Schools of antitrust, and traces the developments of key concepts over the last 34 years. This title also explores systemic issues such as how well has New Zealand moulded its own competition law whilst nonetheless selectively drawing upon the policies, case law, and wisdom of foreign jurisdictions; how effectively has it faced the challenge of adapting its fledgling competition law to the reality of being a small, deregulated, open, and distant economy; and how successful was the application of competition law to utilities in the experimental era of 'light handed regulation'. Written by a New Zealand competition expert, this detailed, original, and comprehensive chronicle of New Zealand's competition law and policy draws together the common threads that mark the modern era and offers some predictions about how the next decades of New Zealand competition law might unfold.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Competition is responsible for much of the prosperity around us. Competitive markets deliver lower prices, better quality, abundance of choice, and increased innovation. But while competition benefits the consumers, it can prove challenging to producers and sellers, who need to constantly improve to stay in business. As a result, sellers may sometimes look for ways to dampen the competitive process. Our antitrust and competition laws are designed to address these risks and safeguard consumer welfare. The competition enforcers have the task of unravelling price-fixing cartels, challenging powerful companies that abuse their power, and monitoring proposed merger transactions that could undermine effective competition. In doing so, competition enforcers have to carefully consider the level of intervention and ensure they do not distort the natural dynamics of competition. Drawing on case studies from the US and the European Union, this Very Short Introduction explores the promise and limitations of competitive market dynamics. In examining the laws and the way they are enforced, Ariel Ezrachi considers the delicate relationship between a free market economy and government intervention, and the fascinating forces of competition that shape modern society. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Competition, or Antitrust, law is now a global phenomenon. It operates in more than 100 countries and the relationships among competition law systems are often complex and opaque. Competition law is also new to many countries, which creates uncertainty about how decisions will be made in these jurisdictions. This makes it critically important to understand both the similarities and differences among the systems and the relationships between them. A succinct introduction, this title breaks down the complicated and foreboding topic of competition law. Divided into four parts, this book covers the elements of competition laws, its decisions, targets, and globalization and the future of competition law. It also provides global context by looking at competition law in the US, Europe, and growing markets like Asia and Latin America. This title covers the most pressing issues of competition law in an informative and concise way. Drawing on his lifetime of global experience and research, David J. Gerber's Competition Law and Antitrust is an essential tool for anyone interested in competition or antitrust law.

This book is Volume II of a two-volume set on antitrust policy, analyzing the economic efficiency and moral desirability of various kinds of antitrust-policy-coverable conduct and various possible government responses to such conduct, including US and EU antitrust law. The overall study consists of three parts. Part I (Chapters 1-8) introduces readers to the economic, moral, and legal concepts that play important roles in antitrust-policy analysis. Part II (Chapters 9-16) analyzes the impacts of eight types of conduct covered by antitrust policy and various possible government responses to such conduct in terms of their economic efficiency, their impact on liberal moral rights, and their instantiation of various utilitarian and other egalitarian conceptions of the moral good. Part III (Chapters 17-18) provides detailed information on US antitrust law and EU competition law and compares the extent to which-when correctly interpreted and applied-these two bodies of law could increase economic efficiency, protect liberal moral rights, and instantiate various morally defensible conceptions of the moral good. This second volume contains the last 6 chapters of Part II, which focus respectively on horizontal (M&A)s, conglomerate (M&A)s, surrogates for vertical integration, vertical (M&A)s, joint ventures, and internal growth and Part III, which focuses on US antitrust law and EU competition law. The book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students of economics and law who are interested in welfare economics, antitrust policy, and The General Theory of Second Best.