Companies around the world and their advisors have realized, over the past few years, that they must be very aware of merger control and antitrust enforcement developments in Brasilia, Moscow, New Delhi, Beijing, and Pretoria. When one appreciates the extent of enforcement by the competition authorities of the powerful emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, it becomes clear that a fundamental change in the focus of international antitrust enforcement has occurred. Under the auspices of the International Bar Association, this timely, invaluable book examines in detail the fast-moving antitrust developments in the BRICS countries. Twenty-nine outstanding experts – practitioners, officials, and academics, each of them working in one of the five countries – present in-depth descriptions of the structure, powers, and procedures of their country’s respective enforcement agencies. Disclosure, transparency, benchmarking, portfolio of policymaking tools, and the speed, phasing, and priorities of implementation are all fully analysed. The authors provide summaries with implications of relevant cases in their jurisdictions. The issues and topics covered include the following: politics, resources, priorities; cooperation with criminal prosecutors and police; extraterritoriality; availability of administrative sanctions, criminal enforcement, and private actions; assessment of dominance; investigation: procedure, powers, burden of proof, appeal; procompetitive development of particular sectors of the economy; leniency programs; calculation of market share thresholds; triggering events/thresholds; notification thresholds and documents; employee and trade union involvement; and government participation and intervention. At a time when the BRICS antitrust agencies are increasingly asserting their roles in a multipolar antitrust world and cooperating with each other more and more, this thorough and up-to-date comparative analysis on what the BRICS countries are doing in the antitrust sector will be extremely valuable to corporate counsel worldwide. For academics and policymakers it will provide a highly revealing perspective on the current state of international competition law enforcement.

Competition law has expanded to more than 100 jurisdictions worldwide with varying degrees of economic, social, and institutional development, raising important questions as to what is the appropriate design of competition law regimes and the interaction between competition law and economic development. This volume, comprising a selection of papers from the 4th BRICS International Competition Conference written by academic and practising economists and lawyers from both developed and developing countries, is distinctive in its focus on a broader view of competition policy in BRICS and developing countries. It examines the role competition, the application of broader public interest and national interest concerns in the analysis and influence on developing country competition authorities' policy-making. The contributors address topics such as: - a broad view of competition policy; - making markets work for the people as a post millennium development goal; - some key issues concerning the further development of China's antimonopoly law; - remedies in BRICS countries; - public interest issues in cross-border mergers; - crafting creative remedies in food markets in South Africa; - what are African competition authorities doing to fight cartels?; - successes and challenges in the fight against cartels; and the economics of antitrust sanctioning.

This contributed volume focuses on competition policy enforcement in BRICS and developing counties. It examines the role and application of economic analysis and evidence in law enforcement procedures, as well as their influence on competition authorities’ policy-making. The contributors also address topics such as recent developments in competition law and practice, institutional design, indicators of performance in enforcement, the incorporation of public interest concerns in Competition Authority objectives, procedural fairness, procurement procedures and compulsory licensing.

This volume examines the controversy surrounding the use of competition law to combat excessive pricing. While high or monopolistic pricing is not regarded as an antitrust violation in the US, employing abuse of dominance provisions in competition laws to fight excessive pricing has gained popularity in some BRICS jurisdictions and a number of EU-member states in recent years. The book begins by discussing the economic arguments for and against the prohibition of excessive or unfair prices by firms with market power. It then presents various country studies, focusing on developed countries (such as the UK and Israel) and on the BRICS countries, to highlight various practical challenges involved in recognizing excessive prices as abusive conduct on the part of dominant firms, including how to define, measure and identify excessive prices. The contributors also discuss other policy options that can be used to fight excessive prices in order to protect consumer welfare.

Explores the role of law in different areas of BRICS cooperation and the impact it can make on global governance.

Eleonora Poli analyses how ideas and material interests have come to determine the evolution of antitrust policies in the USA, EU, Japan and BRICS. She argues that three major economic crises together with market globalisation have changed governments' perceptions of market competition, giving rise to a neo-liberal global phase.