This edited volume addresses the importance, implications, practices, problems and the role of economic evidence in EU competition law. It includes contributions on the use of the economic approach in the application and enforcement of EU competition law in different EU countries, candidate member states and third countries.

This insightful book assesses emerging trends in the role of economic analysis in EU competition policy, exploring how it has substantially increased in terms of both theories and methods.

Provides a clear, concise and practical overview of the key economic techniques and evidence employed in European merger control.

Competition authorities are increasingly interested in understanding the impact of their activities on markets and consumers. The goal is to improve competition policy rules and decision-making practices and to get robust evidence on the benefits of competition and competition policy for society as a whole. Discussions with competition authorities, practitioners and academics have shown the need to take stock of the experience gained in this field by the European Commission and to present it in an easily accessible way. The studies collected in this volume – prepared by senior Commission officials and competition policy experts – range from the ex post evaluation of specific policy interventions to the assessment of the broader impact of competition policy. The issues and topics examined include the following: objectives and scope of evaluations by the European Commission; description of counterfactual evaluation techniques used; conditions for a successful ex post evaluation of a competition policy intervention; a wide selection of individual cases covering a variety of economic sectors; applications in merger control, antitrust and State aid; direct benefits of competition policy interventions for consumers; deterrent effects of such interventions on market participants; and macroeconomic outcomes in terms of job creation, productivity and GDP growth. This matchless book assembles within a single volume all that is needed for competition policy analysts and practitioners to undertake ex post economic evaluations. While its collection of state-of-the-art ex post evaluation studies has a clear value for competition authorities, it is sure to be welcomed as well by competition law practitioners in the private sector, who will greatly appreciate the effort made to cast a critical eye on decisions taken in the past. Moreover, it allows for addressing some of the new challenges facing competition policymakers. Fabienne Ilzkovitz is Principal Advisor responsible for the economic evaluation of competition policy within the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission, and since 2014, she has coordinated various ex post evaluation projects in the Directorate-General. She is also Associate Professor of Economics in the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Adriaan Dierx is Senior Expert on ex post economic evaluation within the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission. He has managed a number of studies aimed at assessing the economic impact of the European Commission’s competition policy interventions.

By examining the issue of collusion in EU and US competition law, this book suggests possible strategies for improving the antitrust enforcement against parallelism, by exploiting the most advanced achievements of economic analysis. The book contains a suggested approach to collusion, in ex ante and ex post perspectives. By moving from the analysis of the state of art, in terms of law, case law, and scholarship, Marilena Filippelli analyses inconsistencies and failures in the current antitrust enforcement toward collusion and develops a workable parameter for the issue of collective dominance. The most innovative part of this work goes beyond the analysis itself of collective dominance and involves the interference of arts. 101 and 102. The conclusion is a re-definition of the relationship between those rulesÑfrom dichotomy to redundancy. Finally, the book highlights the antitrust significance of semi-collusion, as a strategy made of collusion and competition. The author considers economic models equaling, as for the effects, collusion and semi-collusion and the case law supporting the qualification of semi-collusion as a species of collusion. The analysis involves both US and EU systems, under the highly topical economic-oriented approach. It also contains an original view of European antitrust prohibitions. Because of its contents and its approach, this book will be attractive to every academic interested in antitrust law. Moreover, the well-documented research on parallelism, involving law, case law and scholarship, makes this book interesting also for competition authorities and antitrust lawyers.

International Competition Law Series Volume 66 The Role of Economic Analysis in EU Competition Law, Fourth Edtionand in its revised and updated fourth edition, explores the full spectrum of the development of European economic approach in competition law. Almost two decades after the arrival of the and‘more economics based approachand’ to EU competition law, this economic school of thought, the European School, has been properly defined and is now in general used among competition law practitioners and their government counterparts. This approach, studied by Doris Hildebrand since the first edition of this now-classic work, implements the European cornerstones of the social market economy concept such as freedom of contract, social fairness, and the equality principle. In this edition, the author uncovers its multiple rationales as it has gradually formulated the legal principles of and‘competition economicsand’ that have come to underlie all matters related to Article 101 (1), Article 101 (3), Article 102, the Merger Regulation, and the State Aid provisions. As in previous editions, the bookand’s interdisciplinary approach integrates law and economics in such a way that economics in competition proceedings becomes easier to understand for lawyers not trained in economic theory or economic school of thoughts. It offers an in-depth description of and‘European Schooland’ theories and applications, particularly with respect to vertical and horizontal agreements. In addition, the book provides solid guidance on the definition of the relevant antitrust markets, with a detailed description of the hypothetical monopolist test. Whatand’s in this book: Among the fundamental elements discussed are the following: application of economics in the competition test as developed by the EU Courts; concrete economic analysis companies need to perform in order to qualify for an exemption; test procedures to assess whether a certain behaviour constitutes an abuse under Article 82; various methodologies to define markets; contrasting the European and Chicago schools; practical implementation of the EU social market economy objective in EU competition law; workable competition vs. effective competition; changes in the enforcement system; use of evidence in market definition practice; State Aid provisions; and empirical techniques used to evaluate a merger. All significant cases contributory to the development of European competition economics are discussed and analysed in detail. and‘The Frameand’, the first chapter that has been included in this edition, clearly demonstrates all the ways in which EU competition policy represents an essential foundation of the EU. Moreover and‘The Frameand’ elaborates that the social market economy objective as defined in the Lisbon Treaty is, from the economic perspective, the appropriate benchmark in any EU competition law assessment. This benchmark requires a holistic approach by taking into account and‘utilitiesand’ of EU citizens instead of focusing on price elements only. How will this help you: This new updated and revised edition has been greatly anticipated and will be widely welcomed. The book helps to develop expertise in applying the and‘more economics based approachand’ by citing the relevant case law. Competition lawyers, corporate in-house counsel, competition authorities, and courts will appreciate the bookand’s clear, understandable discussion of the relevant European competition theory, authoritative guidance on the application of economic analysis, and practical insight in dealing with these subjects in real-world cases. and

Every year, top-level market regulators, academics and legal practitioners attend the Annual Competition Workshop organised at the European University Institute in Florence. The speakers are invited to discuss a particular set of critical issues in the field of competition law and policy. The entire content of the proceedings - both the oral discussions and the written contributions - are published in the European Competition Law Annual series. This is the fourteenth in the series, reproducing the debate which in 2009 examined the evaluation of evidence and its judicial review in competition cases. The issues discussed included, among others, the burden of proof, the standard of proof and the standard of review with respect to antitrust infringement decisions and merger decisions, both at the level of the EU and at the national level in a number of Member States. In 2009, the Workshop participants were: Rafael Allendesalazar Kelyn Bacon Judge Gerald Barling Simon Bishop Judge Joachim Bornkamm Judge Michael Boudin Jochen Burrichter Dennis Carlton Fernando Castillo de la Torre Justin Coombs Lorenzo Coppi Claus-Dieter Ehlermann John Fingleton Ian Forrester Judge Nicholas Forwood Eric Gippini-Fournier Barry Hawk Alberto Heimler Per Hellström Pieter Kalbfleisch Robert Kwinter Bruno Lasserre Philip Lowe Mel Marquis Damien Neven Judge Aindrias Ó Caoimh Luis Ortiz Blanco John Ratliff J. Thomas Rosch Heike Schweitzer Mario Siragusa Jacques Steenbergen James Venit Judge Nils Wahl Judge Vaughn Walker