A situation in a market in which firms or sellers independently strive for the patronage of buyers in order to achieve a particular business objective, e.g., profits, sales and/or market share. Competition in this context is often equated with rivalry. Competitive rivalry between firms can occur when there are two firms or many firms. This rivalry may take place in terms of price, quality, service or combinations of these and other factors which customers may value.
Source: OECD
The European Commission’s study on 20 years of EU antitrust remedies finds that while most remedies in antitrust cases were implemented, less than half achieved their intended effect. EU law currently subordinates structural remedies – such as divestments – to behavioral fixes. The study recommends scrapping this hierarchy, as behavioral remedies in particular often proved…
Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. From T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets Establishing an antitrust infringement can already be an arduous task. Yet, effective antitrust enforcement increasingly requires designing remedies that go above and beyond just prohibiting the infringing behaviour. This…
On 9 January 2024, Apple offered several commitments under Article 9 Regulation 1/2003 to address the competition concerns of the European Commission in the markets for mobile wallets on iOS, inter alia to ensure effective interoperability with the Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality on iOS. This post will give an initial overview of Apple’s proposed…
Introduction On Wednesday 25 October 2023, the General Court of the European Union ruled in Case T-136/19 on the application of the prohibition of abuse of dominance under Article 102 TFEU. The judgment concerns the annulment of a Commission decision condemning Bulgarian gas holding company BEH and subsidiaries for an unauthorised refusal of access. The…
With the recent Autotalks referral request the European Commission’s new approach to the application of Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) becomes ever more a regular feature of EU merger law. Nevertheless the Commission’s assertion of extended jurisdiction under Article 22 remains unlawful, unconstitutional, and ultimately unsustainable. Even though its new policy was…
Network effects could drive concentration among crypto exchanges Competition can take many forms. Some markets sustain a large number of firms operating and growing in parallel. In other markets, the competitive process leads to all (or almost all) rivals being eliminated, save for one or a small number of survivors. This latter case has come…
Crypto exchanges operate in a dynamic, fast-paced environment in which the contours of competition are still evolving. However, the main parameters of competition among crypto exchanges, their economic characteristics, and current market data suggest that the sector may concentrate in the coming years. Crypto exchanges will soon attract attention from antitrust agencies, driven by an…
In 2018, the OECD and the Canadian Competition Bureau launched the Gender Inclusive Competition Policy project, which aimed to explore the interdependence between the gender perspective and competition policy. Seven research proposals were selected based on their interesting initial findings, which provided specific examples of how competition policy might benefit from adopting a gender perspective….
Introduction Ride-hailing apps are present practically in every country from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In places like Colombia and Brazil, they entered the market as early as 2013 – 2014 respectively, according to research authored by Resende and Lima. Apps like Uber, Cabify and Didi have emerged and generated pressure on the traditional…
Introduction Blockchain technology is a complex and innovative field that has raised questions about its potential impact on competition laws. As the use of blockchain increases, its unique characteristics, such as market power, interoperability, network effects, and transparency, become increasingly challenging to regulate. To tackle these challenges, competition authorities across the globe, including the European…
