There is growing consensus among international trade negotiators and policymakers that a prime area for future multilateral discussion is competition policy. Competition policy includes antitrust policy (including merger regulation and control) but is often extended to include international trade measures and other policies that affect the structure, conduct, and performance of individual industries. This study includes country studies of competition policy in Western Europe, North America, and the Far East (with a focus on Japan) in the light of increasingly globalized activities of business firms. Areas where there are major differences in philosophy, policy, or practice are identified, with emphasis on those differences that could lead to economic costs and international friction. Alternatives for eliminating these costs and frictions are discussed, including unilateral policy changes, bilateral or multilateral harmonization of policies, and creation of new international regimes to supplement or replace national or regional regimes.

Competition Policy An Empirical and Economic Approach Emmanuel Combe It is a truism of competition that, paradoxically, those who were responsible for yesterday’s innovations and productivity become obstacles to future growth. This is why competition law has been assigned such an important role in modern countries—to detect and sanction anticompetitive practices that prevent the entry of new, efficient competitors. This utterly original book, which thoroughly explains competition policy using economic analyses of European and U.S. antitrust cases, illuminates the complex but crucial back-and-forth between economic theory and competition law practice. Covering the full range of competition policy, from antitrust (cartels, abuse of dominant position) to merger control, the book not only offers a general view of competition policy in Europe and the United States but also clearly explains the economic underpinnings that guide it, thus illustrating how principles are applied in practice. Issues and topics include the following: economic approach of antitrust sanctions; role of criminal sanctions and private actions; factors favoring cartel formation and stability; role of leniency policies; vertical restraints in the age of e-commerce; economic assessment of R&D and licensing agreements; detecting and sanctioning predatory pricing; exploitative and exclusionary abuses; and impact of a horizontal, vertical and conglomerate mergers on competition. All the major fields of competition policy are clearly explained, with many illustrative examples from case law. There is also a chapter presenting an overview of competition policies around the world, as well as the legal and institutional framework within which they operate. At a time of increasing public concern regarding high industrial concentration, especially in the digital sector, the question of regulating competition is returning to the forefront. Given that the concepts and tools of economic analysis are widely used by competition authorities, this book gives lawyers a clear understanding of the objectives and instruments of competition policy. It will thus enable corporate counsel, academics, and policymakers to apply or formulate competition law with increased precision in their day-to-day work.

Modern competition law was first employed by countries over one hundred years ago in order to address issues relating to restrictions of trade at the national level. Recent international economic integration has weakened the distinction between the domestic and the international in several fields of economic activity, and consequently the laws which regulate such activity, competition law included. Several attempts to address the paradox of adopting national competition rules to address international issues have been made at the international, regional and (lately) bilateral levels. This book discusses the international dimension of EU competition law, and examines the position taken by the EU in four distinct categories of international agreements which are devoted to competition or include competition provisions. In particular, it analyses the EU's position with regard to bilateral enforcement cooperation agreements, bilateral free trade agreements, plurilateral-regional agreements and the long negotiations for the adoption of a multilateral competition regime.

A key factor in the emerging relationship between law and economic globalization is how global competition now shapes economies and societies. Competition law is provided by those players that have sufficient 'power' to apply their laws transnationally. This book examines this important and controversial aspect of globalization.

This book is a welcome and timely addition to the library of materials exploring the implications of the move from internationalisation of trade towards globalisation. Michael Hutchings, European Competition Law Review This book provides an excellent introduction to the difficult and important issues surrounding international trade and competition policy. Douglas A. Irwin, Dartmouth College, US The opening up of world markets, rapid growth of trade and foreign direct investment create manifold problems for competition policy. Thus, international mergers may have adverse effects on many countries, international cartels may carve up world markets and dominant firms may seek to maintain their global position by exclusionary conduct. These problems have been recognised for more than half a century and some attempts have been made internationally to address them, so far with limited success. This progressive book seeks to explore the problems and concerns that globalisation has created for competition policy. The book begins by setting out the principles of competition and trade policies, and then goes on to address the impact of market globalisation on what are usually thought of as traditional antitrust concerns. These include the analysis of the difficulties arising from collusion and other restrictive practices, government sponsored voluntary co-operation , vertical restrictions and market access, pricing strategies of dominant firms and international mergers, all illustrated with a number of prominent case studies. The author concludes with an illuminating discussion on the feasibility of international co-operation on competition policy, the faltering progress that has been made so far and the prospects for future advances. This comprehensive volume will prove to be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of law and economics. It will also find wide appeal amongst researchers, policy makers and practitioners with an interest in industrial organisation, antitrust policy and globalisation.

The fast-evolving relationship between the promotion of welfare-enhancing competition and the balanced protection of intellectual property (IP) rights has attracted the attention of policymakers, analysts and scholars. This interest is inevitable in an environment that lays ever greater emphasis on the management of knowledge and innovation and on mechanisms to ensure that the public derives the expected social and economic benefits from this innovation and the spread of knowledge. This book looks at the positive linkage between IP and competition in jurisdictions around the world, surveying developments and policy issues from an international and comparative perspective. It includes analysis of key doctrinal and policy issues by leading academics and practitioners from around the globe and a cutting-edge survey of related developments across both developed and developing economies. It also situates current policy developments at the national level in the context of multilateral developments, at WIPO, WTO and elsewhere.

A proposal for moving from price-centric to innovation-centric competition policy, reviewing theory and evidence on economic incentives for innovation. Competition policy and antitrust enforcement have traditionally focused on prices rather than innovation. Economic theory shows the ways that price competition benefits consumers, and courts, antitrust agencies, and economists have developed tools for the quantitative evaluation of price impacts. Antitrust law does not preclude interventions to encourage innovation, but over time the interpretation of the laws has raised obstacles to enforcement policies for innovation. In this book, economist Richard Gilbert proposes a shift from price-centric to innovation-centric competition policy. Antitrust enforcement should be concerned with protecting incentives for innovation and preserving opportunities for dynamic, rather than static, competition. In a high-technology economy, Gilbert argues, innovation matters. Gilbert considers both theory and available empirical evidence on the relationships among market structure, firm behavior, and the production of new products and services. He reviews the distinctive features of the high-tech economy and why current analytical tools used by antitrust enforcers aren't up to the task of assessing innovation concerns. He considers, from the perspective of innovation competition, Kenneth Arrow's “replacement effect” and the Schumpeterian theory of market power and appropriation; discusses the effect of mergers on innovation and future price competition; and reviews the empirical literature on competition, mergers, and innovation. He describes examples of merger enforcement by US and European antitrust agencies; examines cases brought against Microsoft and Google; and discusses the risks and benefits of interoperability standards. Finally, he offers recommendations for competition policy. The open access edition of this book was made possible by generous funding from Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.