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
Marcel Meinhardt and Astrid Waser, Lenz & Staehelin, Switzerland The Swiss Federal Administrative Court (“FAC”) recently passed two new judgments on vertical agreements. In the first judgment, the Court endorsed its previous Gaba case law and confirmed a sanction against BMW AG (“BMW”) amounting to CHF 156 million for restricting direct and parallel imports….
Hong Kong’s first cross-sector competition law – the Competition Ordinance (“Ordinance”) – finally came into full force on 14 December 2015. The Ordinance became law in June 2012, initially bringing into effect only the provisions allowing for the regulatory framework to be put into place. Over the two and a half years run up to…
While higher concentration/oligopoly should not lead in itself to greater problems, the reality is that agencies may be more suspicious; extra laws may apply; and complaints might be more likely. This blog post sets out the things that companies can do to preserve their commercial freedom and freedom from investigation: Contacts with competitors One area…
“A strong and active antimonopoly authority is an incentive for undertakings to engage in prevention” – the President of the Polish Competition Authority presents his views on competition law compliance. Adam Jasser, the President of the Polish Competition Authority (UOKIK) has recently spoke to Bartosz Jagura of Viadrina Compliance Center about competition law compliance. It…
On 4th November, the European Commission published a far-reaching consultation (the Consultation) on proposals to boost the enforcement powers of national competition authorities (NCAs) and to address differences between national competition enforcement systems in the European Union. The Consultation builds on the 2014 Communication on Ten Years of Regulation 1/2003 (the Communication) but also reflects…
Any company or organisation that finds itself as the ‘middle man’ in contacts between competitors or which has dealings with such a middleman must take care, as a flurry of recent EU cases has demonstrated. Any company that directly facilitates those contacts is in very dangerous waters indeed. Cartel Facilitation In AC Treuhand, the European…
This blog deals with the 2nd part of the FCO’s discussion paper on internet platforms: possible theories of harm and intervention of competition agencies. For the first part on general concepts please see my previous blog. Merger control The FCO explains that reducing the number of platforms may actually increase competition, due to the easier…
On 1 October 2015, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“CRA 2015”) entered into force. The CRA 2015 makes numerous changes to consumer rights laws in the United Kingdom. Of particular interest to competition practitioners and litigators are the provisions on private actions in competition law, contained in section 81 of and Schedule 8 to the…
Fordham University School of Law will hold its 42nd Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy on October 1-2, 2015, at Fordham Law School in New York City. There also will be a new pre-conference antitrust economics workshop on September 30. The conference, now led by James Keyte of Skadden Arps, will feature new…
The Polish Competition Authority, which is the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (the “PCA”), has announced that, starting from 1 September 2015, it will be issuing statements of objections to undertakings and will set up an internal evaluation committee. These new tools are, in PCA’s own words, designed to “strengthen procedural…
