Antitrust refers to a field of economic policy and laws dealing with monopoly and monopolistic practices. Antitrust law or antitrust policy are terms primarily used in the United States, while in many other countries the terms competition law or policy are used. Some countries have utilized the phrases Fair
Trading or Antimonopoly law. The intellectual basis for antitrust economics or policy is the sub-field of industrial organization economics which addresses issues arising from the behaviour of firms operating under different market structure conditions and the effect this has on economic performance. Most antitrust or competition laws have provisions dealing with structure such as mergers, monopoly, dominant market position and concentration, as well as behaviour, such as collusion, price fixing, and predatory pricing.
Source: OECD
Recent months have seen a surge of new initiatives by European antitrust enforcers applying competition law rules to holders and processors of “big data.” Big data often is described as the accumulation of a significant volume of different types of data, produced at high speed from multiple sources, whose handling and analysis might require new…
11th Evening Policy Talk of the Global Competition Law Center Tuesday, June 7, 2016 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM The State of US Antitrust Enforcement with Diane P. Wood, Chief Justice, US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Albert Foer, founder and former President of the American Antitrust Institute Eleanor M. Fox, Walter…
On 21 April 2016, the Advocate General Nils Wahl issued his Opinion in Case C-221/15 – a proceeding initiated by a request for preliminary ruling from the Brussels Court of Appeal. The case concerns the compliance of the prohibition upon retailers to sell tobacco products below the price indicated on the tax stamps by manufacturers…
Polish competition authority, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), took its stance on the Uber’s innovative business model. As it is its last important statement under President Adam Jasser, I would like to mention him at the end of this entry, especially as the way UOKiK tackled the “Uber problem” is an another…
Ever since the incoming EU Competition Commissioner said that information was the new currency of the internet, antitrust commentators started to spill ink on the topic of Big Data and whether it was a Big Deal. The topic now seems to occupy a place on the agenda of many antitrust conferences – and as recently…
The insurance block exemption regulation (IBER) protects statistical cooperation and certain joint insurance arrangements (inter alia line slips, pools, consortia, joint binding authorities). The EU report examining the IBER’s renewal concludes it is either superfluous or superseded. But the report leaves many practitioners scratching their heads. The report miss-describes industry fundamentals and omits essential practices benefitting…
In a recent media appearance, the new President of the Argentine Antitrust Commission (CNDC) and the Trade Secretary, gave some insights into the current status of the local antitrust regime and announced the introduction of several changes and amendments: The CNDC will launch 11 market investigations with the objective of assessing their level of competition….
Summary On 10 March 2016, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down judgments[1]Case C‑247/14 P – HeidelbergCement AG v European Commission; Case C‑248/14 P – Schwenk Zement KG v European Commission; Case C‑267/14 P – Buzzi Unicem SpA v European … Continue reading that provide useful clarification regarding limits on information requests issued by the…
Co-authored by Patrick Harrison and Audrey Silvain, Sidley Austin LLP. There are few distinctions more important in EU competition law than that between the notion of a restriction “by object” – where a regulator need not demonstrate that conduct had anti-competitive effects – and the notion of a restriction “by effect,” where a regulator…
The COMPAT’s recent judgment in Hiranandani contains several important lessons for the Indian antitrust community. The case reflects the CCI’s desire for strong enforcement and effective deterrence of exclusive contracts in strategically important sectors (hospital services). And it reflects effective judicial control by the COMPAT of the CCI’s process, institutional design, and analysis. COMPAT’s lessons…
