Archive for December 16th, 2013
The Concept of Abuse in EU Competition Law
Note: The new release of Competition Law Journal features a book review that I wrote this past summer about Pinar Akman’s interesting book: The Concept of Abuse in EU Competition Law: Legal and Economic Approaches. I took advantage of the opportunity to voice out some perhaps not-so-frequent views on competition law in general and Article 102 in particular, mainly casting doubt on the convenience of upholding efficiency as its single, sacred, overarching goal and raison d’être. It is reproduced below:
The interest, apparent complexity and the peculiar nature of competition law stem to a great extent from the abstract nature and impreciseness of its main concepts. Most other areas of law have settled and well understood central notions. Competition law, by contrast, is premised upon particularly nebulous or malleable concepts (fortunately for those of us that make a living out of it, and perhaps not so much for those directly subject to it). Ask most lawyers about what a ‘restriction of competition’ is and you will get a surprising variety of theories, and most likely some striking silences. And whereas competition law concepts are open enough to accommodate different – often conflicting – interpretations, no other concept gives rise to the same level of controversy as the notion of ‘abuse of dominance’.
Indeed, despite longstanding efforts – including some notable recent ones by enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic – we still lack a precise idea of what an abuse of dominance is. Moreover, it has become common for partisans of different schools or viewpoints to point at the obvious irrationality of their counterparts: those ‘irrational ordoliberals’ on the one side, or those ‘irrational neoliberals’ on the other, both cross-criticized for obviously lacking any merit in their arguments. Article 102 elicits passions that move discussions away from ideally Cartesian legal debates and closer to those touching on more profound and vital issues such as religion, politics and football.
Our inability to come up with satisfactory rules to distinguish legitimate and illegitimate unilateral conduct by dominant firms has provided fertile ground for the creativity of both practicing lawyers and academics (and, to be sure, of competition enforcers as well). Focusing only on the academic domain, Pinar Akman’s book is preceded by an endless list of publications having as their object – but perhaps not as their effect – the clarification of Art 102 TFEU.
Against this background, Pinar Akman’s book stands out as a particularly original contribution to this debate, and one that is definitely worth reading. The book is very innovative in its approach, it is well written, and it visibly is the result of thorough research, reflection and drafting. Akman’s work is deliberately theoretical; it is not aimed at providing a systematic and thorough account of cases; it stays true to its stated purpose of proposing a ‘completely fresh approach’ to Art 102 TFEU, and it does indeed submit thought-provoking ideas.
The Concept of Abuse in EU Competition Law is grounded on the author’s arguable assumption that “the approach that has been adopted by EU authorities to date is far from desirable or appropriate and sometimes is even far from rational“. Consistent with this critical stance, the book seeks not to provide an analysis of the case law and decisional practice, but rather to propose its radical overhaul. This is boldly announced in its very first paragraph:
“The reader of this book is invited to put to one side her preconceptions of the prohibition of abuse of a dominant position in Article 102 TFEU, in particular those directly resulting from the judgments of the Court of Justice (ECJ). Fortunately, this is not asking for too much; after all, the ECJ is not legally bound by precedent.”
It is often said that the first phrase in any literary work should create a tension prompting the reader to continue the story. I acknowledge that the bold view of precedents as preconceptions made me read the rest of the book with increased interest.
Chillin'Competition 