This book comprises a set of papers that were prepared for and delivered at the Global Competition Law Centre's Annual Conference "Modernisation and Enlargement: Two Major Challenges for EC Competition Law". The book presents an analysis of the new Regulation 1/2003 on the implementation of the competition rules laid down in Article 81 and 82 of the Treaty. This new Regulation represents a cultural revolution for EC competition lawyers, who were accustomed to notifying agreements in order to obtain some legal certainty for their clients. Modernisation opens up a brand new world where corporations and their lawyers will be asked to self-assess the validity of their agreements under EC competition law. The direct effect given to Article 81(3) will also stimulate implementation at the national level, including actions in national courts, although several procedural issues may impede private actions in courts. Amongc its other features, Regulation 1/2003 also creates a European Competition Network (ECN), which provides an institutional focus for cooperation between the NCAs and the Commission, as well as among the NCAs themselves. Enlargement of the European Union was one of the factors, which contributed to the adoption of Regulation 1/2003. Enlargement will expand the geographical scope of application of EC competition rules, but it will also create many important challenges. The NCAs of the new Member States are relatively new organisations, which in some cases lack the expertise and resources to pursue a credible enforcement agenda. These Member States are, however, willing to take on those challenges and, though a period of adaptation will be needed, there are no reasons why they should be unable to progressively develop a successful competition policy. Already, some agencies (e.g., in Hungary or Poland) have developed a credible enforcement record. This book is invaluable for all EU competition lawyers.

An international survey covering the domestic anti-trust laws of 25 EU member states.

This book offers an investigation of several aspects of the so-called modernization of EU competition law. It brings together a number of articles written between 2005 and 2010, supplemented by an overall analysis and forward looking conclusion. Modernization affected both the enforcement of competition law (the entry into Reg. 1/2003 and decentralization), as well as the substantive application of the law (a more economical approach). Five subjects are dealt with in consequent chapters. They all touch on, sometimes unintended, the important side effects of modernization. The first subject is the level of individual judicial protection offered by the EU courts. The second subject is the interstate trade clause which has acquired a new role after modernization. The third subject is highly relevant in practice, namely the rules on proof in cartel cases. The book then goes on to examine the crucial issue of the objectives of EU competition law and, finally, devotes an article to the challenging question whether there is still a role for the principle of national procedural autonomy and what effectiveness still requires now in terms of further harmonization of national procedures. In a substantial last chapter, the different essays and articles are drawn together and a number of fundamental issues are addressed: the relationship between competition policy and the internal market, the pressures put on the institutional and procedural framework by substantive modernization, the difficult relationship between decentralization, convergence and consistency, and the need for a sufficient system of judicial protection at the EU level.

The idea of the Modernisation of European Competition Law had been launched by the Commission in late 2000 in a White Paper. The Commission proposed to decentralise the application of the EC competition rules: national authorities and judges would receive new competencies in this area. The modernisation process should dramatically change the scene. Current expectations are that there is a fair chance that the Commission's proposal will be adopted, with some amendments, by the Council before the end of 2002. Following the publication of the White Paper, the Leuven Centre for a Common Law of Europe decided to devote a conference to the subject of Modernisation of EC Competition Law in June 2001. At the time of the Conference, the modernisation idea had been followed by a draft Regulation implementing Articles 81 and 82 EC. This book contains the papers that were delivered at the conference. These papers examine the salient features of the proposed reform and discuss its consequences for European and national competition law and practice. Special emphasis is placed on private enforcement of EC antitrust rules. The editors added a general introduction, setting out the highlights of the modernisation debate, as it was conducted in Leuven. Therefore this book will help to understand this single most important reform of EC competition law since its conception. Contributions to this book are made by Thomas C. Arthur, Sir Christopher Bellamy, Ludo Cornelis, Wouter Devroe, Hans Gilliams, Luc Gyselen, Koen Lenaerts, Jules Stuyck, John Temple Lang, Marc van der Woude and Walter van Gerven.

The materials of a 2000 debate on the proposals made by the European Commission for the reform and decentralisation of EC antitrust enforcement.

The result of a conference held in London in September 1999, the papers in this text discuss issues surrounding the European Commission's White Paper published in April 1999. This paper is concerned with the evolution of competition law in the European Union.

In light of criticism in recent years of the European Community's competition law, Amsterdam lawyer Wesseling tries to clarify the current challenges to the policy by examining the origins of the competition law system. He begins by tracing the policy's development from the European Economic Community, established in 1958, and the European Union of today. Then he addresses the pertinent objectives, the institutional framework, the division of jurisdiction between the Community and the Member States, the decentralized enforcement of Community law, and other issues. His conclusions differ considerably from the Commission's recent white paper. Distributed in the US by ISBS. c. Book News Inc.