Companies today must consider and comply with competition law in their daily business management. The financial and reputational risks for breaching such rules are severe and the success of many merger and acquisition projects depends very much on it. While competition law rules become increasingly sophisticated, business people are still expected to comply with it. Rather than giving a theoretical approach that can be found in a typical practitioner’s book or textbook, «Day-to-Day competi...

Succinct and concise, this textbook covers all the procedural and substantive aspects of EU competition law. It explores primary and secondary law through the prism of ECJ case law. Abuse of a dominant position and merger control are discussed and a separate chapter on cartels ensures the student receives the broadest possible perspective on the subject. In addition, the book's consistent structure aids understanding: section summaries underline key principles, questions reinforce learning...

Throughout this unprecedented crisis which is hitting all major economies in the EU, the escalation of the Eurozone recession increasingly undermines public confidence in the ability of competitive markets to deliver positive outcomes.A debate on the most appropriate way to enforce competition rules, in light of the crisis, is definitely useful.A “relaxed” stance to competition during difficult periods may be tempting and indeed, this has often been the approach used in the ...

This volume contains the papers presented at the annual Concurrences Journal conference held on 21 February 2014 at the French Ministry for the Economy. After the traditional « State of the Union », presented by Vice President Joaquín Almunia in the context of the « after » economic crisis, the papers adress four main issues:• Detection of anticompetitive practices: Should existing tools be revised or new tools introduced? Leniency, market surveys, financial reward…• Patent...

The Consumer Rights Act is a vital and far-reaching piece of legislation containing provisions specific to contract and consumer law, criminal law, and competition law. It sets out a much-needed framework to consolidate the key consumer rights surrounding contracts for goods, services, and digital content, as well as the law relating to unfair terms in consumer contracts. The Act introduces easier routes for consumers and SMEs to challenge anti-competitive behaviour through the Competition...

This book addresses the phenomenon of mergers that may result in non-coordinated effects in oligopolistic markets. Such cases are sometimes referred to as "non-collusive oligopolies", or "gap cases" and there is a concern that they might not be covered by the substantive test that some Member States use for merger assessment. Ioannis Kokkoris examines the argument that the European Community Merger Regulation (Regulation 4064/89) did not capture gap cases and considers the extent to which ...

Patent assertion entities (commonly known as 'patent trolls') hurt competition and innovation. This book, the first to analyze the most salient issues related to patent assertion entities around the world, integrates economic theory with economic and legal reality to examine how the entities function and their impact on competition. It also offers legal and policy solutions that might be used to combat them. Edited by D. Daniel Sokol, the volume collects chapters from an array of leading s...

Rather than viewing the history of American capitalism as the unassailable ascent of large-scale corporations and free competition, American Fair Trade argues that trade associations of independent proprietors lobbied and litigated to reshape competition policy to their benefit. At the turn of the twentieth century, this widespread fair trade movement borrowed from progressive law and economics, demonstrating a persistent concern with market fairness - not only fair prices for consumers bu...

The widespread move towards more market-driven models of political economy combined with the expanding internationalisation of business and commerce has led to a series of proposals for global competition rules. To date these proposals have been hotly contested. The purpose of this book is to investigate in some depth whether there is a rational foundation for pursuing international competition rules, and what form these laws should take. The book takes examples from existing competition l...

Competition law is rooted in economic theory, and economics provides many of the standard tools often applied in competition investigations. As a result, a strong foundation in economics is an invaluable asset for practitioners in this area of law. This is the new edition of the popular and well-regarded practitioner guide to the economic principles of competition law. Written in accessible language for non-technical readers, it covers first economic principles by applying them directly to...

This Cambridge Handbook, edited by Roger D. Blair and D. Daniel Sokol, brings together a group of world-renowned professors in the fields of law and economics to assess the theory and practice of antitrust, intellectual property, and high tech. With the increased globalization of antitrust, a better understanding of how law and economics shape this interface will help academics, policymakers, and practitioners to understand the existing state of academic literature, its limits, and its rel...

Despite the growing importance of 'consumer welfare' in EU competition law debates, there remains a significant disconnect between rhetoric and reality, as consumers and their interests still play only an ancillary role in this area of law. Consumer Involvement in Private EU Competition Law Enforcement is the first monograph to exclusively address this highly topical and much debated subject, providing a timely and wide-ranging examination of the need for more active consumer participation...