The Global Limits Of Competition Law

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.

What the authors offer is a thoroughgoing analysis clearly demonstrating that, whatever economic path developing countries pursue, imposing Western-style antitrust regimes will engender uncertainty, chill economic behaviour, and foster an unhealthy climate for business. They employ the influential error-cost methodology to appraise the performance of competition policy and to show how such a policy creates irresolvable tensions in fragile economies with weak institutions - economies characterized by informal rules of business practice, long-standing symbiotic business-state relationships, and unpredictable state action. They mount a powerful critique of the arguments of neo-institutionalists (who fail to recognize the vulnerable nature of emerging market economies) and competition `advocates' (who presume to stand ready and vigilant to enforce competition policy on state entities). --

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: A, Queen's University, language: English, abstract: This paper uses a blend of empirical literature and real-life examples of merger approvals and rejections to derive limits of international Competition Laws (CL). I separate the detected problems in generic weaknesses that relate to the nature of CL itself from derivative weaknesses that harken back to shady regulation and disharmonies across the globe. Generic weaknesses encompass an unclear balance of power between Intellection Property (IP) Law and CL, the CL's potentially slowing effect on innovation, the economically muddled rationale behind the law and the distortion of its enforcement due to the law's historical evolution and differences in cultural values. Derivative weaknesses are mainly based on the creation of misleading incentives derived from conflicting CLs and their enforcement across the globe. The establishment of an international harmonization treaty could be discussed in one of the upcoming WTO rounds to reach an agreement about the mutually beneficial maximization of global welfare.

Moreover, states have powerful incentives to permit domestic industries to exploit outsiders, or even to facilitate such practices. High-profile antitrust conflicts, from the prosecution of Microsoft in state, national, and international forums to the transatlantic disagreement over the European Union's merger policy, illustrate the difficulties. Possible solutions to these problems range from improved intergovernmental cooperation, to direct policy harmonization, to a new regime of "structured competition" in antitrust policy modeled on U.S. corporation law.

Theoretical discussions among competition lawyers and economists on the approach to Resale resale Price price Maintenance maintenance (RPM) and Vertical vertical Territorial territorial Restrictions restrictions (VTR) have often caused controversy. However, commentators agree that there is a lack of comprehensive study surrounding the topic. This book explores these two forms of anticompetitive conduct from legal, historical, economical, and theoretical points of view, focusing on the EU and US experiences. The author expertly goes beyond the current legal practice to explain, among other things, what approach should apply to RPM and VTR, and why RPM and VTR are introduced in situations where procompetitive theories would not make economic sense, or do not apply in practice. The book takes account of economic values, such as efficiency and welfare, as well as other values, such as freedom, fairness and free competition. Scholars and students of law will find the book’s depth of legal, economic and historical analysis to be a rich contribution to the scholarship. This book will also be of use to EU and US practitioners, and enforcers dealing with RPM and VTR cases.

This title covers international and comparative issues of antitrust law, economics, and policy. It can be used to enrich U.S. antitrust casebooks or by itself for courses on global antitrust. It addresses all major issues of competition law and global competition policy, including extraterritoriality; global norms; cooperation, convergence, and divergence; the state's role in restraining or facilitating competition; process and procedures; and substantive areas including cartels, horizontal and vertical agreements, abuse of dominance, and mergers. It compares developed and developing jurisdictions. It references numerous jurisdictions, including the European Union, China, Japan, India, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Latin American countries.

Current global developments in antitrust display two chief characteristics. On the one hand, national legislation in this area has proliferated all over the world since the breakdown of the major socialist systems. Today, competition statutes are to be found in more than 80 countries and more than half of them took effect during the past decade. On the other hand, the broad discussion on future harmonization of national antitrust laws as well as on the pros and cons of an international antitrust code or agency has stimulated international cooperation and convergence at various levels. Both strands require profound legal analysis in order to further a deeper understanding of the diverse national competition statutes as well as to pave the way towards global standards for the protection of competition against restrictions. Such standards are viewed as an adequate response to the challenges posed by the globalization of markets. The present comparative study was conceived for the XVIth International Congress of Comparative Law held at Brisbane in July 2002, and it encompasses fifteen national and regional reports from selected countries. Major jurisdictions such as the United States, Australia and Japan are treated alongside with 'newcomers' in antitrust such as Argentina and Poland. Two regional reports covering the European Community and the MERCOSUR complete the picture. Finally, a comparative General Report allows insights into the structural and institutional particularities of the jurisdictions considered and analyzes the harmonization potential in central areas of antitrust.

To what extent should public services (for example public utilities such as telecommunications, energy, public transport and postal services) be subject to ordinary competition law? This question has assumed great importance in the context of the activities of European Union. On the one hand, it is argued (particularly in France) that competition law is a threat to the values of public services that underlie their distinctive objectives. On the other, the 'Anglo-Saxon' argument is thatprotecting public services from competition gives them an unfairly protected position and can mask their inefficiencies. This book examines the philosophical, political, economic, and social principles involved. Prosser contrasts the mainly economic and utilitarian justifications for the use of competition law with rights- and citizenship-based arguments for the special treatment of public services, and examines the varied conceptions of the differing traditions in the UK, France, and Italy. Prosser then considers the developing European law in this area. He examines decisions of the European Court of Justice, considers the development of the concept of 'services of general interest' by the Commission, and reviews the liberalization process in telecommunications, energy, and postal services. He also provides a detailed case-study of public service broadcasting. The book concludes by drawing general principles from the debates about the extent to which public services merit distinctive treatment and the extent to which competition law must be amended or limited to respect their distinctive roles.