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.

Asian Capitalism and the Regulation of Competition explores the implications of Asian forms of capitalism and their regulation of competition for the emerging global competition law regime. Expert contributors from a variety of backgrounds explore the topic through the lenses of formal law, soft law and transnational regulation, and make extensive comparisons with Euro-American and global models. Case studies include Japan, China and Vietnam, and thematic studies include examinations of competition law's relationship with other regulatory terrains such as public law, market culture, regulatory geography and transnational production networks.

This book is Volume I of a two-volume set on antitrust policy, analyzing the economic efficiency and moral desirability of various tests for antitrust legality, including those promulgated by 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 economic efficiency, the securing of liberal moral rights, and the instantiation of various utilitarian, non-utilitarian-egalitarian, and mixed 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 ensure economic efficiency, protect liberal moral rights, and instantiate various morally defensible conceptions of the moral good. This first volume contains Part I and the first two chapters of Part II of the overall study-the two chapters that focus on oligopolistic and predatory conduct of all kinds, respectively. The book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students of economics and law who are interested in welfare economics, antitrust legality and the General Theory of the Second Best.

This monograph addresses two problems surrounding the interpretation and application of Article 81 of the EC Treaty - what is competition and how does Article 81 ensure that competition is protected. After over 40 years of application and a period of modernisation, decentralisation, and reflection, it is possible to understand Article 81 and what it seeks to achieve. The monograph's aim is to reveal the intellectual order and rational structure underlying the law so as to enable the reader to understand Article 81 in a clear and rigorous manner. This is done by breaking Article 81 down into its constituent elements and examining the function that each element serves. Arguing that jurisdiction rests on a public/private distinction, both the substantive and the justificatory rules are cast to generate obligations appropriate for private actors to perform. Actors and activities falling within the scope of Article 81 are subject to the substantive element prohibiting contrived reductions in output. Since output reduction can co-exist with cost reduction/innovation, and that these latter features are desirable, cost reduction and innovation operate to justify infringement of the substantive obligation. Thus this monograph argues that output, cost and innovation are the only legitimate issues in an Article 81 analysis. It is in this sense that the monograph is concerned with the boundaries of Article 81 EC.

In this book the legitimacy of anti-dumping measures in free trade areas is discussed. Economists argue that, generally, anti-dumping actions restrict and distort competition. In political terms, anti-dumping measures are biased in favour of a privileged interest group: the producers. Legally, they infringe the obligation of National Treatment contained in the GATT and NAFTA. Within regional groupings they contradict the guidelines of Article XXIV(8) (b) of the GATT. At the same time, anti-dumping measures are an exclusive exercise of sovereignty and would seem to protect statehood and arguably other national interests of any importing state. The traditional alternative for anti-dumping actions has always been argued to be the application of domestic legislation against predation and price discrimination. It is suggested that this solution is inappropriate or at least incomplete. Many abuses, other than predation, can be exercised in transnational market: transnational vertical restraints such as tying, refusal to deal, restrictions on patents, trade marks and copyrights may all facilitate dumping. Indeed, in an international forum, what constitute market power and abusive conduct

"Competition and the State" analyzes the role of the state across a number of dimensions as it relates to competition law and policy across a number of dimensions. This book re-conceptualizes the interaction between competition law and government activities in light of the profound transformation of the conception of state action in recent years by looking to the challenges of privatization, new public management, and public-private partnerships. It then asks whether there is a substantive legal framework that might be put in place to address competition issues as they relate to the role of the state. Various chapters also provide case studies of national experiences. The volume also examines one of the most highly controversial policy issues within the competition and regulatory sphere--the role of competition law and policy in the financial sector.
This book, the third in the "Global Competition Law and Economics" series, provides a number of viewpoints of what competition law and policy mean both in theory and practice in a development context.

"Persuasive and brilliantly written, the book is especially timely given the rise of trillion-dollar tech companies."--Publishers Weekly

From the man who coined the term "net neutrality," author of The Master Switch and The Attention Merchants, comes a warning about the dangers of excessive corporate and industrial concentration for our economic and political future.

We live in an age of extreme corporate concentration, in which global industries are controlled by just a few giant firms -- big banks, big pharma, and big tech, just to name a few. But concern over what Louis Brandeis called the "curse of bigness" can no longer remain the province of specialist lawyers and economists, for it has spilled over into policy and politics, even threatening democracy itself. History suggests that tolerance of inequality and failing to control excessive corporate power may prompt the rise of populism, nationalism, extremist politicians, and fascist regimes. In short, as Wu warns, we are in grave danger of repeating the signature errors of the twentieth century.

In The Curse of Bigness, Columbia professor Tim Wu tells of how figures like Brandeis and Theodore Roosevelt first confronted the democratic threats posed by the great trusts of the Gilded Age--but the lessons of the Progressive Era were forgotten in the last 40 years. He calls for recovering the lost tenets of the trustbusting age as part of a broader revival of American progressive ideas as we confront the fallout of persistent and extreme economic inequality.

Regressfragen sind sowohl juristisch als auch wirtschaftlich von grosser Bedeutung und bilden die Grundlage fur vermehrte Diskussionen in Literatur und Rechtsprechung. Wiederholt wird dabei die Frage diskutiert, ob der Regress eines Disziplinarmittels aufgrund einer drohenden Zweckverfehlung ausgeschlossen sein muss. Zur Untersuchung dieser Frage betrachtet der Autor die entsprechenden Konstellationen im Verbands-, Kartell- und Datenschutzrecht. Anschliessend stellt er die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede der Konstellationen dar und formuliert einen allgemeingultigen Ansatz anhand des deutschen Schadensrechts. Abschliessend gibt der Autor einen Ausblick auf den Regierungsentwurf zu einem Verbandssanktionengesetz.

Damages Claims for the Infringement of Competition Law addresses the current state of the law in the EU on damages claims for the infringement of EU competition law by combining a theoretical with a practical perspective. The work first focuses on the relevant EU acquis, examining all aspects of EU law that may be relevant to damages claims (whether brought by a consumer or not) such as those concerning fault, alternative dispute resolution, as well as private international law instruments. The book then delves into the economic underpinnings of claims for damages, including optimal enforcement theory and damages and the legal standards of liability, the evaluation of damages for cartels, exploitative conduct and exclusionary conduct. The work also examines collective actions (legal regime and financing aspects), the interaction between damages claims and public enforcement, causation as well as issues relating to multi-jurisdictional enforcement and damages claims. The book provides a discussion of the emerging field of competion law damages and explores the important questions it raises about the use of the traditional tort law catergories in an area of law that is heavily infused with economic analysis. It combines a corrective justice perspective with an empirical and theoretical analysis of the practice of competiton law damages in various jurisdictions in Europe. Rather than adopting the traditional economic analysis law of approach, the authors respect the autonomy of the fields of law and economics, while attempting to identify the areas of conflict that may emerge when economic concepts and categories are integrated in the legal system.

At the heart of the European Union is the establishment of a European market grounded in the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital. The implementation of the free market has preoccupied European lawyers since the inception of the Union's predecessors. Throughout the Union's development, as obstacles to free movement have been challenged in the courts, the European Court of Justice has had to expand on the internal market provisions in the founding Treaties to create a body of law determining the scope and meaning of the EU protection of free movement. In doing so, the Court has often taken differing approaches across the different freedoms, leaving a body of law apparently lacking a coherent set of foundational principles. This book presents a critical analysis of the European Courts' jurisprudence on free movement, examining the Court's constitutional responsibility to articulate a coherent vision of the EU internal market. Through analysis of restrictions on free movement rights, it argues that four main drivers are distorting the system of the case law and its claims to coherence. The drivers reflect 'good' impulses (the protection of fundamental rights); avoidable habits (the proliferation of principles and conflicting lines of case law authority); inherent ambiguities (the unsettled purpose and objectives of the internal market); and broader systemic conditions (the structure of the Court and its decision-making processes). These dynamics cause problematic instances of case law fragmentation - which has substantive implications for citizens, businesses, and Member States participating in the internal market as well as reputational consequences for the Court of Justice and for the EU more generally. However, ultimately the Member States must take greater responsibility too: only they can ensure that the Court of Justice is properly structured and supported, enabling it to play its critical institutional part in the complex narrative of EU integration. Examining the judicial development of principles that define the scope of EU free movement law, this book argues that sustaining case law coherence is a vital constitutional responsibility of the Court of Justice. The idea of constitutional responsibility draws from the nature of the duties that a higher court owes to a constitutional text and to constitutional subjects. It is based on values of fairness, integrity, and imagination. A paradigm of case law coherence is less rigid, and therefore more realistic, than a benchmark of legal certainty. But it still takes seriously the Court's obligations as a high-level judicial institution bound by the rule of law. Judges can legitimately be expected - and obliged - to be aware of the public legal resource that they construct through the evolution of case law.

Aimed primarily at non-regulatory lawyers this book provides a practical guide to transactions involving utilities and in particular the procurement of goods and services from utilities (rather than by utilities). Focusing on the law of England and Wales, the book covers the regulation of utilities including gas, electricity, water, sewerage, and telecommunications. It also addresses the relevant competition law as well as considering matters relating to renewable energy, consumer protection, property, and planning issues commonly encountered in relation to utilities. The regulatory position is considered at every stage of development of the utility network starting with the purchaser's initial discussions with the utility, then the construction of the network, the flowing of gas, electricity or water, and concluding with the disconnection of the end customer. Practically focused, the book draws upon the author's experience working with utilities, developers, funders and contractors at all levels of the supply chain, on projects ranging from three-unit housing developments to some of the world's most ambitious energy infrastructure projects.

This book provides edited selections of primary source material in the intellectual history of competition policy from Adam Smith to the present day. Chapters include classical theories of competition, the U.S. founding era, classicism and neoclassicism, progressivism, the New Deal, structuralism, the Chicago School, and post-Chicago theories. Although the focus is largely on Anglo-American sources, there is also a chapter on European Ordoliberalism, an influential school of thought in post-War Europe. Each chapter begins with a brief essay by one of the editors pulling together the important themes from the period under consideration.

Both antitrust and intellectual property laws are intended to facilitate economic growth. Antitrust is meant to encourages competition of all kinds and intellectual property law should offer inventors and artists the correct incentives to develop new ideas and technologies, but the harsh reality is that antitrust and IP laws have wandered off this course.
In Creation without Restraint: Promoting Liberty and Rivalry in Innovation, Christina Bohannan and Herbert Hovenkamp analyze the current state of competition (antitrust) and intellectual property laws, and propose realistic reforms that will encourage innovation. As with antitrust and a reform process that aligned injury requirements in lawsuits with the incentive to compete, this book proposes similar reforms for patent and copyright law, and considers both the uses and limitations of antitrust as a vehicle for intellectual property law reform. This book considers how antitrust and IP law should engage practices that restrain rather than promote innovation, and covers the troubled topic of IP "misuse," which the authors suggest needs a broader reach but narrower remedies.
Bohannan and Hovenkamp also evaluate the uses and limits of antitrust to address a variety of practices in innovation intensive markets, including interconnection in networks, duties to deal, and internet neutrality. The book constructs a framework and rules for governing the "innovation commons," or the vast area that involves collaborative innovation. Finally, it considers ways to further competition in the licensing and distribution of IP rights, and offers several proposals for specific reforms, most of which can be instituted by the courts without the need for new legislation.

Over the last three decades, the field of antitrust law has grown increasingly prominent, and more than one hundred countries have enacted competition law statutes. As competition law expands to jurisdictions with very different economic, social, cultural, and institutional backgrounds, the debates over its usefulness have similarly evolved.
This book, the first in a new series on global competition law, critically assesses the importance of competition law, its development and modern practice, and the global limits that have emerged. This volume will be a key resource to both scholars and practitioners interested in antitrust, competition law, economics, business strategy, and administrative sciences.

This is the first EU competition law treatise that fully integrates economic reasoning in its treatment of the decisional practice of the European Commission and the case-law of the European Court of Justice. Since the European Commission's move to a "more economic approach" to competition law reasoning and decisional practice, the use of economic argument in competition law cases has become a stricter requirement. Many national competition authorities are also increasingly moving away from a legalistic analysis of a firm's conduct to an effect-based analysis of such conduct, indeed most competition cases today involve teams composed of lawyers and industrial organisation economists.
Competition law books tend to have either only cursory coverage of economics, have separate sections on economics, or indeed are far too technical in the level of economic understanding they assume. Ensuring a genuinely integrated approach to legal and economic analysis, this major new work is written by a team combining the widely recognised expertise of two competition law practitioners and a prominent economic consultant. The book contains economic reasoning throughout in accessible form, and, more pertinently for practitioners, examines economics in the light of how it is used and put to effect in the courts and decision-making institutions of the EU. A general introductory section sets EU competition law in its historical context. The second chapter goes on to explore the economics foundations of EU Competition law. What follows then is an integrated treatment of each of the core substantive areas of EU competition law, including Article 101 TFEU, Article 102 TFEU, mergers, cartels and other horizontal agreements, vertical restraints and technology transfer agreements.

In recent years cartel regulation has become a key priority for competition authorities around the globe resulting in a proliferation of immunity and leniency programmes. Competition authorities are constantly developing and revising their approaches to cartel regulation and introducing new mechanisms for businesses to report cartels, seek immunity and gain leniency. The need for businesses and their advisers to be able to identify and manage their global risk exposure is more pressing than ever before. The Global Cartels Handbook addresses this pressing need by providing a comparative analysis of immunity and leniency programmes for legal practitioners and corporate counsel. It consists of a comparative introduction which identifies some of the key features of the main jurisdictions and provides some of the strategic pointers to the most appropriate forums in which to seek leniency. A quick reference guide gives a tabular country-by-country overview of the leniency programmes in place around the world. This is followed by a detailed point-by-point description of each leniency programme, with reference to all key case law throughout, under a set of headings which are templated across each country chapter. This template format allows for ease of reference and consistency of information and provides essential practical information for filing a leniency application.

Article 102 TFEU prohibits the abuse of a dominant position as incompatible with the internal market. Its application in practice has been controversial with goals as diverse as the preservation of an undistorted competitive process, the protection of economic freedom, the maximisation of consumer welfare, social welfare, or economic efficiency all cited as possible or desirable objectives. These conflicting aims have raised complex questions as to how abuses can be assessed and how a dominant position should be defined.
This book addresses the conceptual problems underlying the tests to be applied under Article 102 in light of the objectives of EU competition law. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book covers all the main issues relating to Article 102, including its objectives, its relationship with other principles and provisions of EU law, the criteria for the assessment of individual abusive practices, and the definition of dominance. It provides an in-depth doctrinal and normative commentary of the case law with the aim of establishing an intellectually robust and practically workable analytical framework for abuse of dominance.

The influence of European Competition Law is global, and Competition Law and Regulation of Technology Markets takes a practical, integrated approach to competition law, which is becoming increasingly prominent in the technology sector in Europe - as demonstrated by a number of high profile cases such as Microsoft, Sony/BMG and Intel.
The book focuses on the information, communication and media markets that form the 'new economy'. It provides a coherent analysis of these various markets by considering the regulatory context, and by addressing the issues, and ensuing legal problems, that are common to them. These include; high fixed costs, the importance of intellectual property and standards, the impact of interoperability, and the prevalence of the network effect.
The book considers how EU competition rules interact with regulation, intellectual property law and data protection rules, and goes on to analyze the application of competition rules in four fields; communications networks, industrial intellectual property, creative intellectual property, and electronic commerce and services.. The book charts a clear path through this complex interaction of rules, and provides the competition law practitioner with the necessary tools to advise on legal problems in these sectors.

Widely read and appreciated in its first edition by students, academics and junior practitioners, EU Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights was the first book to offer an accessible introduction to the interface between competition law and intellectual property rights.
Now fully updated, but retaining the accessible approach, it continues to represent an ideal gateway to this increasingly dynamic interface, offering a sound introduction to the topic based on thorough legal analysis. It provides a foundation to EU competition law rules as they relate to intellectual property rights, and explores how such a template can be applied to existing intellectual property rights and adapted to new technologies such as telecommunications and information technology. It demonstrates how, both under the EU law and as a matter of economic policy, EU competition law must provide a set of outer limits to, and a framework of rules which regulate, the exploitation and licensing of intellectual property rights.
A group of landmark cases since the first edition - the Microsoft case and its predecessor concerned with database rights, the IMS case - has extended the scope of Article 102 TFEU to a refusal to license interface codes. Article 102 has also been applied in the Astra Zeneca case to regulate the behavior of pharmaceutical companies and the pharmaceutical sector has recently experienced a sectoral enquiry. Finally, the field of industrial standards, patent ambushes and FRAND obligations has become the subject of competition law scrutiny. Under Article 101 TFEU, the modernization reforms and the new Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation 772/2004 together with the Technology Transfer Guidelines have quite radically reformed the method that lawyers must use when analysing the limits of clauses in intellectual property licensing. It requires greater economic understanding, offers less legal certainty but allows more flexibility than its predecessor. The book offers a comprehensive insight to these new developments in a textbook style ideal for those approaching the subject for the first time, or a useful reference for those with more experience.

One of the most contentious and high-profile aspects of EU competition law and policy has been the regulation of those serious competition or antitrust violations now often referred to as 'hard core cartels'. Such cartel activity typically involves large and powerful corporate producers and traders operating across Europe and beyond, and comprise practices such as price fixing, bid rigging, market sharing, and limiting production in order to ensure 'market stability' and maintain and increase profits. There is little disagreement now, in terms of competition theory and policy at both international and national levels, regarding the damaging effect of such trading practices on public and consumer interests, and such cartels have been subject to increasing condemnation in the legal process of regulating and protecting competition.
Regulating Cartels in Europe provides critical evaluation of the way in which European-level regulation has evolved to deal with the activities of such anti-competitive business cartels. They trace the historical development of cartel regulation in Europe, comparing the more pragmatic and empirical approached favored in Europe with the more dogmatic and uncompromising American policy on cartels. In particular, the work considers critically the move towards the use of fully fledged criminal proceedings in this area of legal control, examining evolving aspects of enforcement policy such as the use of leniency programs and the deployment of a range of criminal law and other sanctions.
This new edition of the work covers emerging themes and arguments in the discipline, including the judicial review of decisions against cartels, the criminological and legal basis of the criminalization of cartel conduct, and the range and effectiveness of sanctions used in response to cartel activity.

Recent years have seen a trend toward an 'economics-based' approach to the enforcement of European competition law. But what is meant by 'economics-based', and how does this approach sit with legal and enforcement practice? This book seeks to place in perspective the growing use of economics in European competition law enforcement by examining precisely how economics contributes to the enforcement activity of the European Commission and Courts. Christopher Decker provides unique empirical insights as to how economic theory, thinking, techniques and data have featured in decision-making in the area of co-ordinated effects. The role of economics is examined throughout the entire enforcement process, from the decision to initiate an investigation to the design and implementation of remedies, and its conclusions are of general relevance to all areas of competition law enforcement where economics is used. Utilising a broad and multifaceted conception of economics, this book is essential reading for academics and students interested in European competition law, EC competition lawyers, applied industrial economists and enforcement officials. It will also be an invaluable tool for academic libraries and institutes, government agencies, law firms and economic consultancies.

Following China's entry into the WTO in September 2001, it has been keen to establish itself among trading parties as a market economy. In recent years it has become one of the largest trading nations in the world, and is a source of substantial inward investment. In recognition of these developments, the government has undertaken a major overhaul and modernization of its competition law, superseding the outdated and disparate provisions previously in place, with new legislation in 2007. China's near neighbors, Vietnam and South Korea, likewise have vibrant economies and have had strong trading relationships with the west for many years. This book is the first to cover the practical implications of the developments in competition law in these countries.
It is aimed at practicing lawyers and company advisors, giving a clear description of the new antitrust law in China, the established antitrust law in Taiwan and Korea, and the underdeveloped law in Vietnam. It also considers developments in Hong Kong, which is in the process of introducing a general law of antitrust. The first part of the book gives a concise introduction to antitrust laws and policies in the jurisdictions covered, as well as an introduction to standards in antitrust law for those new to the area. China, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam each have five chapters devoted to discussion of the regime in general, its institutional shape, the substantive laws relating to agreements, dominant or monopoly firm conduct, merger control and procedures. The relevant legislation is explained and the principles clarified by references to guidelines, practice and relevant decisions and cases. In the case of Hong Kong a single chapter discusses the proposals brought forward by the legislature. Particular attention is paid to the extent to which antitrust laws in each jurisdiction may be applied to parties who are not citizens in those jurisdictions.
This book is invaluable to lawyers advising clients engaging in international trade and commerce with and within these territories, and besides giving a clear explanation of the position of the law, it also contains translations of the core relevant legislation for each of the jurisdictions. Academics specializing in international competition law will find this a concise and informative text for consultation.

Competition law damages actions are often characterized by the uncertainty of the causal connection between the infringement and the harm. The damage consists in a pure economic loss flowing from an anticompetitive conduct. In such cases, the complexity of the markets structures, combined with the interdependence of individuals' assets, fuel this causal uncertainty. In this work, Claudio Lombardi elucidates the concept of causation in competition law damages actions and outlines its practical implications in competition litigation through the comparative analysis of the relevant statutory and case law, primarily in the European Union. This book should be read by practitioners, scholars, and graduate students with experience in competition law, as well as those interested in analyzing economic torts and causation in general.

This book is Volume I of a two-volume set on antitrust policy, analyzing the economic efficiency and moral desirability of various tests for antitrust legality, including those promulgated by 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 economic efficiency, the securing of liberal moral rights, and the instantiation of various utilitarian, non-utilitarian-egalitarian, and mixed 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 ensure economic efficiency, protect liberal moral rights, and instantiate various morally defensible conceptions of the moral good. This first volume contains Part I and the first two chapters of Part II of the overall study-the two chapters that focus on oligopolistic and predatory conduct of all kinds, respectively. The book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students of economics and law who are interested in welfare economics, antitrust legality and the General Theory of the Second Best.