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

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.

The controversy surrounding EU competition rules has grown in recent years. Pressure from such phenomena as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the digital economy have fostered a fragmentation in the interpretation of the rules at both national and EU levels. This volume takes stock of the current situation, assessing the successes and failures of the prevailing ‘modernisation’ policy and setting forth a range of potential legal adaptations designed to offer the right responses to a rapidly changing world. The book’s contributions are based on papers delivered at the 2022 Annual Conference of the Global Competition Law Center (GCLC) at the College of Europe in Bruges. The authors include prominent practitioners and academics, members of the European Commission, representatives of national competition authorities, and judges from both EU and national courts. They address such salient issues as the following: free competition versus ‘regulated competition’ as alternative or complementary models; new methods for the identification of consumer harm and benefits; sui generis competition law regimes for specific sectors; State aid enforcement and crisis management; and the green and digital objectives and their legal and political implications. Taken together, the essays provide extensive treatment of the EU Courts’ jurisprudence and the literature in the field. For practitioners, policymakers and academics working with competition law, the book will clearly explain the new competencies of the Commission, raise awareness of the latest case law on the analysis of effects, and ensure a forward-looking approach to competition law enforcement in Europe.

The European Union (EU) leniency programme is a key weapon in the Commission’s fight against hard-core cartels. Much of the success of EU cartel enforcement depends on the continued effectiveness of the leniency policy and is especially critical in response to the growth of private enforcement. This book offers a comprehensive description of the development of the policy, along with a normative framework that promises to ensure the full legitimacy of the leniency programme: the Commission’s policy should pursue not only effectiveness but also fairness. It is the first work to extensively analyse the effectiveness and fairness in the EU leniency policy. Proceeding systematically from clarifying the concepts of ‘effectiveness’ and ‘fairness’ to addressing the tension between leniency and private actions for damages, the author discusses the nature of, and interrelations among, such aspects as the following: – the theoretical model of the EU fining policy; – the compatibility of the EU enforcement system with fundamental rights protection; – the gathering and evaluation of evidence at the preliminary investigation stage; – the severity and foreseeability of the EU cartel fines; – judicial review by the EU Courts in competition matters; – to what extent the current policy is effective and fair; and – reforms brought about by the 2002 and 2006 Leniency Notices and the leniency-related amendments by the 2014 Antitrust Damages Directive. A key feature is the author’s presentation of a normative framework to test the effectiveness (deterrence) and substantive fairness (retribution) of the EU leniency policy. As a clear demonstration of how to forestall the danger of focusing on effectiveness of leniency at the expense of fairness, both in a substantive and in a procedural sense, this book is a major contribution to the literature of competition law. It will prove to be of great value to competition authorities, antitrust practitioners and interested academics not only in Europe but also throughout the world.

. . . Arianna Andreangeli s book can be strongly recommended. Academics and practitioners active in the field of competition law, EU law and human rights will certainly find much of interest in this book. Volker Soyez, European Competition Law Review This book is well structured and well written. . . The volume represents an important contribution to the existing legal literature on fundamental rights protection in the EU legal order from a competition law perspective. Giacomo Di Federico, Common Market Law Review This book discusses the procedural rights enjoyed by those being investigated under Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty and of the Merger Control Regulation, and their right to challenge the Commission s decision in the Community Courts. It further assesses how their rights to due process in competition proceedings before the European Commission comply with the notion of administrative fairness enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, in accordance with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. In this study, Arianna Andreangeli takes into account key developments such as modernisation and its impact on competition proceedings before the Commission, the debate on the principles of legal professional privilege, the protection against self incrimination, the rule of ne bis in idem and the possibility of establishing an EU competition court . It offers an examination of the right to be heard, the right to have access to the Commission-held evidence, and to legal professional privilege, and the right to silence and to seek judicial review of Commission decisions and assess them in the light of the Strasbourg court s case law. Academics active in the area of competition law, EU law and human rights, as well as practitioners active in the area of competition law will find much to interest them in this book.

By their nature, remedies are central to competition law enforcement and represent the yardstick against which the efficiency of the overall system can be measured. Yet very rarely have remedies been treated in a horizontal and comprehensive manner from the combined perspectives of substance, process and policy. The present volume, developed in partnership with the College of Europe’s Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC), provides coherent, practical, and authoritative commentaries by leading experts from the GCLC’s incomparable network. The contributions – originally presented at the 2019 GCLC annual conference – examine remedies to assess the overall effectiveness of competition law enforcement in merger, antitrust and State aid matters. The overall topic is presented under five headings: objectives and limitations of remedies; types of remedies in competition law enforcement; implementation and process; ex post assessment of remedies and policy lessons; and national and international approaches. The high-profile and wide-ranging group of authors includes the Director-General of the European Commission’s competition department, lawyers from major international firms, and well-known economists and academics specialising in competition law. With a sharp focus on how to make competition rules work well in today’s digital environment, this systematic and coherent analysis illuminates an issue that we need to fully grasp and understand in order to make sense of competition policy, law and enforcement in the years and decades to come.

Over the past fifteen years, the optimal enforcement of EU competition law has become a major concern. This book contains a unique collection of articles by lawyers and economists on current issues in the public and private enforcement of competition law. Public enforcement has been strengthened in numerous ways – for example, through the introduction of a leniency programme and a substantial increase in fines for competition law violations. At the same time the EU Commission has been promoting private enforcement – for example, by developing a legal framework that grants victims of EU antitrust law infringements access to compensation. The contributions in this book address a range of topics in the area of competition law enforcement, including the role of fines and leniency programmes in public enforcement; access to evidence and the quantification of damages in private enforcement; and the interaction between public and private enforcement of competition law in Europe.