83 research outputs found
Public EU competition law enforcement in small ‘newer’ Member States: addressing the challenges
Get PDFThe decentralised nature of Regulation 1/2003 meant that all Member States of the EU have an obligation to enforce EU competition law in addition to their domestic equivalent once the criterion of ‘the Effect on Interstate Trade between the Member States’ is triggered. While larger Member States are better equipped to deal with supranational cases, smaller Member States in terms of their limited resources and lack of experience may struggle. Unfortunately, the academic literature on small countries in the EU is scarce and fragmented. Filing the gap in the literature, this paper will argue that ‘smallness’ in competition law does matter, as small Member States are more exposed to the enforcement of the EU competition provisions. Given the obligation imposed by Regulation 1/2003, the paper will further explore the challenges faced by the National Competition Authorities (the NCAs) of small Member States from the post-2004 accession, namely Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia in their enforcement of EU competition law
A dive into 'unknown' waters : a critical analysis of the EC merger control mechanism and policy and its application in the Baltic Countries
Get PDFThis study undertakes a comparative analysis of the approaches towards merger
control regime taken at the EC and the national levels, namely the Baltic countries. The emergence and further development of competition law and policy
(particularly merger control rules) in the unexplored Baltic countries represent a novelty of the work, as there are no comprehensive legal writings in this area. The comparative research revealed that the EC incorporates both a negative and a
positive approach vis-a-vis merger control rules; after shifting towards a more
economic based approach, the EC regulatory authorities have explicitly
recognised possible pro-competitive effects of mergers on competition. Whereas,
the situation differs in the Baltic countries: despite committing themselves to
applying the EC competition policy, these countries employ a negative approach
towards merger transactions by placing focus on finding `dominance' rather than
stressing emphasis on a merger's effects on competition. This negative approach
may mean that the Baltic countries are reluctant to admit pro-competitive effects of merger transactions on competition, which can be seen as a sign that the merger control regimes in the Baltic countries are orientated towards dominance or
market power rather than efficiency enhancing.
The law used in the research is stated on the basis of materials available to the researcher on 31 May 2006
Webinar “Judicial Review of Competition Cases: The CEE and SEE Countries Perspectives”
Get PDFOn 14 June 2023, three ASCOLA (Academic Society for Competition Law)[1] regional chapters (Eastern Europe (Baltics), Central Europe (CEE), and South-East Europe (SEE)) joined together to organise a webinar entitled “Judicial Review of Competition Cases: the CEE and SEE Countries Perspectives”. This webinar was built upon an expansive Study on Judicial Review of competition law enforcement in the EU and the UK, led by Professor Barry Rodger, Dr Or Brook and other team members, including Professor Maciej Bernatt, as well as national rapporteurs representing the 27 EU Member States and the UK.[2]. [1] ASCOLA regional chapters accessed 10 July 2023. [2] Judicial Review of Competition Law Enforcement in the EU: Empirical Mapping 20042021 accessed 10 July 2023
The 16th ASCOLA conference, a Panel on ‘Career Challenges: How to make and maintain an academic career (not just as a woman)’, virtual, 1–3 July 2021
Get PDFIt has been another difficult year affected by the pandemic outbreak. This meant
that for the second time the ASCOLA (Academic Society for Competition Law)
Annual Conference had to be held virtually. ASCOLA brings together numerous
researchers and scholars from all continents with an interest in antitrust law, economics
and policy. The 16th ASCOLA Conference, held virtually on 1–3 July 2021, led by
the ASCOLA Executive Board, Michal Gal, Rupprecht Podszun and Peter Picht (plus
their respective teams), had over 120 talks from inspiring speakers from all over
the world. The main theme of the conference was Competition and Innovation in
Digital Markets, with the focus on the application of competition laws (covering both
developed and developing countries) in digital markets ensuring competition and/or
innovation. Given that digital markets encompass platform-based business models,
multi-sided markets, network effects and economies of scale and scope as well as other
phenomena, they pose more complex competition issues. Therefore, the discussions
also centred on the extent to which ex-ante regulatory tools should be introduced to
promote competition in digital markets (namely the EU’s current proposals for the
Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act). Any competition law related matters
will not be conclusive without the input of economists. Specifically, the keynote speech
was presented by the economics Professor Carl Shapiro (‘Antitrust: What went Wrong
and How to Fix it’); moreover, an Economic expert Panel took place, consisting of
two panellists – the renowned innovation economists Richard Gilbert (Berkeley) and
Monika Schnitzer (Ludwig Maximilians University), the panel was moderated by
Tommaso Valletti (Imperial College, London, and former chief economist of the EU
Commission’s DG Competition)
Editorial foreword
Get PDFIt is my great pleasure to introduce to you the 23rd issue of the Yearbook
of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies (YARS 2021, Vol. 14(23)), with the focus
on the currently highly debated topic of the interplay between competition
law and sustainability..
Judicial review of competition law decisions: an empirical study of the Lithuanian context
Get PDFAcknowledgements:
The author would like to thank the Competition Council of Lithuania for providing the requested information. All comments and observations expressed in this paper are the author’s.Commemorating the 20th anniversary since joining the European Union (EU) (together with an obligation to enforce EU competition law), this study evaluates national judgments reviewing the Lithuanian National Competition Council’s [known as Konkurencijos Taryba (KT)] decisions during the 2004–24 period. Building on comprehensive empirical research on judicial review of the KT’s decisions, which involved employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, this article aims to capture the main trends and patterns of judicial review in the Lithuanian context, with some comparison to other small European countries. The study covers the KT’s decisions in relation to the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (and domestic equivalents), pertaining not only to infringement decisions but also to settlements, commitments, as well as decisions not to launch an investigation or discontinue an investigation. The findings reveal a predominant focus on the national provisions, with only 27 per cent of appealed cases embracing the EU element. As far as the outcomes are concerned, this article notes that the administrative courts mostly confirmed the competition authority’s decisions, with any interventions being calibrated in a manner to avoid any encroachment upon the authority’s discretion, clearly upholding the concept of judicial deference
Planned obsolescence in the context of a holistic legal sphere
Get PDFCopyright © The Author(s) 2021. Businesses may take advantage of the rapid technological developments to increase sales by designing products with a short lifespan and encouraging consumers to buy a replacement more quickly than they otherwise might have to, which is commonly known as planned obsolescence. While employing a holistic approach and exploring planned obsolescence from three different angles, such as demand-side, supply-side and environmental-side, the paper argues that the current measures in the fields of unfair competition and consumer protection law, competition law, and environmental law are quite insufficient to deal with planned obsolescence. Therefore, there is the need for an EU measure outlawing planned obsolescence in the context of the circular economy
The Transposition of the Antitrust Damages Directive in the Small Member States of the EU—A Comparative Perspective
Get PDFCopyright © The Author(s) 2018. The selected EU Member States (i.e. Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, and Luxembourg) have faced technical and linguistic intricacies in their attempts to align the Antitrust Damages Directive’s provisions with national rules.
It seems that the copying/literal method combined with the minimalistic approach dominated in this transposition process, especially in newer small Member States.
In the context of the elaboration and gold-plating methods, the paper also discovered some deviations or uncertainties which require to be settled in the future
Energy efficiency in industry: EU and national policies in Italy and the UK
Get PDFEnergy efficiency, which is one of the pillars of the EU's Energy Union strategy, has been proposed as a solution, namely as a highly effective pathway to improve economic competitiveness and sustainability of the European economy, lower emissions, reduce energy dependency and increase security of supply, and job creation. The paper reviews the EU strategies and policies on energy efficiency and argues that further focus should be placed on industrial energy efficiency. Despite a decline in energy consumption in recent years in industry, this sector is one of the largest users of energy in the EU. Therefore, the paper reviews the extent to which the European and national policies in the selected jurisdictions, such as Italy and the UK address energy efficiency in industry and whether there are any measures in place to promote it
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