The Optimal Enforcement Of Ec Antitrust Law A Study In Law And Economics

This text provides clear answers to the major questions concerning the modernization of EC antitrust enforcement such as: should a notification system be maintained, or should the antitrust rules be enforced exclusively through deterrence?; and at what levels should fines be set?

Over the past fifteen years, the optimal enforcement of EU competition law has become a major concern. This book contains a unique collection of articles by lawyers and economists on current issues in the public and private enforcement of competition law. Public enforcement has been strengthened in numerous ways – for example, through the introduction of a leniency programme and a substantial increase in fines for competition law violations. At the same time the EU Commission has been promoting private enforcement – for example, by developing a legal framework that grants victims of EU antitrust law infringements access to compensation. The contributions in this book address a range of topics in the area of competition law enforcement, including the role of fines and leniency programmes in public enforcement; access to evidence and the quantification of damages in private enforcement; and the interaction between public and private enforcement of competition law in Europe.

After 1 May 2004, the enforcement of European antitrust law entered a new era. At the same time as 10 new Member States joined the European Union, Regulation No 17, which had governed the enforcement of Articles 81 and 82 EC since 1962, was replaced by Regulation No 1/2003, which has ushered in far-reaching changes. This book brings together six essays which analyse the background and main characteristics of the new enforcement system, as well as a number of outstanding questions and potential areas of further reform, including the question whether private antitrust enforcement should be encouraged, and the question whether the decisional power in antitrust matters should be transferred to the courts. Special attention is given to the problem of the compatibility of the new enforcement system and of the practice of European antitrust enforcement with the requirements of the European Convention of Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, including the principle of ne bis in idem, the privilege against self-incrimination, and the right to an independent and impartial tribunal. On many of these issues, the discussion contained in this book is not only legal, but also includes an economic analysis from the perspective of efficient law enforcement.

Offering a concise and critical comparison of EU competition law and US antitrust law from an economic perspective, this is the ideal textbook for international and interdisciplinary courses combining law and economic approaches.

Mateus and Moreira present a formidable review of pressing issues in competition law and economics. Top officials, judges and experts from Europe and North America offer their insights into analytical issues, practical problems for companies, enforcers and complainants and on the state of trans-Atlantic divergence and convergence. The discussion on national champions and state aid is prescient. Throughout, the analysis is acute, cutting edge, and deep. Officials, counsel and scholars will draw from this fabulous book for years to come. Philip Marsden, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London, UK Competition policy is at a crossroads on both sides of the Atlantic. In this insightful book, judges, enforcers and academics in law and economics look at the consensus built so far and clarify controversies surrounding the issue. There is broad consensus on the fight against cartels, with some countries criminalizing this type of agreement. However there is also wide debate on the questions of monopolization and abuse of dominant position, vividly highlighted by the recent Microsoft case. Furthermore, there are today diverging views on the interplay of business strategies and the control of market power on both a national and international scale. The book discusses the perennial issue in Europe of the conflicts between competition and industrial policies, once again bringing the theme of national champions to the fore. The contributing authors provide opinion on the efforts which have been made towards modernization in both the USA and the EU. Featuring new contributions by leading scholars and practitioners in antitrust, this book will be a great resource for antitrust enforcers, competition lawyers and practitioners and competition economists, as well as scholars and graduate students in antitrust and competition law.

In the last few years, the public enforcement of Articles 81 and 82 EC has been thoroughly transformed: the competition authorities of the EU Member States have become active enforcers within the European Competition Network, the European Commission has imposed more and higher fines than ever before, leniency has become a major instrument of cartel detection, and some Member States have introduced criminal penalties. The overall trend towards more and stronger enforcement of Articles 81 and 82 EC has also rekindled discussion on the old question of how to strike the right balance between efficient enforcement and adequate protection of the rights of the defence. This book brings together six essays which analyse from both a legal and an economic perspective the powers of investigation of the European Commission and the competition authorities of the Member States, and the corresponding procedural rights and guarantees, the use of settlements, the theory and practice of fines and of leniency, and the criminalization of European antitrust enforcement.

This incisive Research Handbook identifies and assesses the emerging trends in competition enforcement, investigating how such changes impact the enforcement approach of competition authorities and the behaviour of companies in an ever-evolving business and regulatory environment.

In the late 1990s, the European Commission embarked on a long process of introducing a 'more economic approach' to EU Antitrust law. One by one, it reviewed its approach to all three pillars of EU Antitrust Law, starting with Article 101 TFEU, moving on to EU merger control and concluding the process with Article 102 TFEU. Its aim was to make EU antitrust law more compatible with contemporary economic thinking. On the basis of an extensive empirical analysis of the Commission's main enforcement tools, this book establishes the changes that the more economic approach has made to the Commission's enforcement practice over the past fifteen years. It demonstrates that the more economic approach not only introduced modern economic assessment tools to the Commission's analyses, but fundamentally changed the Commission's interpretation of the law. Emulating one of the key credos of the US Antitrust Revolution thirty years earlier, the Commission reinterpreted the EU antitrust rules as aiming at the enhancement of economic consumer welfare only, and amended its understanding of key legal concepts accordingly. This book argues that the Commission's new understanding of the law has many benefits. Its key principles are logical, translate well into workable legal concepts and promise a great degree of accuracy. However, it also has a number of serious drawbacks as it stands. Most worryingly, its revised interpretation of the law is to large extents incompatible with the case law of the European Court of Justice, which has not been swayed by the exclusive consumer welfare aim. This situation is undesirable from the point of view of legal certainty and the rule of law.