Author Archive
Teaser
Want to know why the EU’s commitment to fostering parallel trade is plain ideology?
Want to know why the Commission’s decisions in MSFT make no sense from an IO perspective, but are sound from a behavioralist standpoint.
Then read my new working papers here and here.
(Image possibly subject to copyrights: source here)
Upcoming events
- On 18 an 19 November, the city of New Dheli will welcome a “Global Competition Law Conference” entitled Implementing Competition Law and Policy, Global PerspectivesI. The conference organizers are I. Liannos and D. Sokol. For more on this, see programme here
- On 7 October, the GCLC will have its annual conference. This year’s edition is devoted to the role of the EU courts in competition cases. See programme hereafter.GCLC_-_Sixth_Annual_Conference_-_7_&_8_October_2010_-_Programme_and_Registration_Form
- On 23 September, the GCLC will have a lunch talk on the quantification of damages for antitrust infringements. Speakers are Judge Peter Roth (High Court – Chancery Division) and Andrea Lofaro (RBB econ). See registration form hereafter: Registration Form – 48th GCLC Lunch Talk – 23 septembre 2010
Back in Black
Back from hols with a sad story. During the summer, Theo Albrecht, one of the founders of the Aldi group – a sort of German Wal Mart – passed away.
Wikipedia has a full entry on Aldi. In addition to espousing the low-cost business model, Aldi has built part of its success on what seems to be a blatant market partitioning strategy. The Aldi group is indeed composed of two financially independent firms, Aldi Markt and Aldi Süd, which respectively serve northern and southern territories (see map above: Aldi Markt in Blue and Aldi Sûd in red). As explained in Wikipedia, the companies describe their relationships as a “friendly relation“…
Thanks to L. de Muyter for the pointer.
Break
I am leaving tomorrow on hols. Regular blogging will resume in early August. Thanks to all of you for the support, and for your interest in our postings.
And please mark your agendas for:
1. the GCLC annual conference, due on 7-8 October 2010 (see programme below).
2. the beginning of the BSC’s LLM in competition law and economics (on 1 October).
GCLC – Sixth Annual Annual Conference – 7 & 8 October 2010 – Programme and Registration Form
BTW: I have just posted a new working paper on ssrn.
(Image possibly subject to copyrights: source here)
Will Never Get Funds from the EU :(
The Commission has published today a call for projects in the context of its FP7 programme (i.e., the EU’s main instrument for funding research in Europe).
This thing is a bitter news for us legal academics looking for research funds. Under theme 8 (socio-economic sciences and humanities), only one topic is related specifically to law.
This bitter feeling only gets worse when looking at the selected topic: “Rule of Law and Justice in a Multilevel Governance System“. Although I do love legal theory, I hate jargon-driven, remote from practice research topics, and don’t believe this is the direction where the EU should direct its funds.
Take a bite at it and read the following summary of the research topic. Really disconcerting.
“Interdisciplinary research -drawing from law as well as sociology, political science, history or others- should address the implications of the Lisbon Treaty on the very identity and’actorness’ of the EU with regard to its legal personality and the impact of this on the work ofthe EU and its Member States. The integration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into theTreaty and the new provisions of the Stockholm Programme must be taken into account.More broadly research could examine how the interaction between the Community method,intergovernmental decision making, and matters decided by national and EU parliaments,executives, courts as well as international bodies influence the legitimacy and theeffectiveness of EU policies. The impacts of the diversity of legal cultural traditions and bodyof law (e.g. common, civil or Islamic law tradition) on mutual recognition of judicialdecisions, the internal market, family law and many regulatory fields should also be assessed.The citizen’s point of view when faced with a multilevel governance system in the field ofjustice needs to be examined, as well as the implications of the Citizen’s Initiatives foreseen inthe Treaty. Different degrees and forms of ‘litigiosity’ –in terms of intensity of resort to legal suit- across countries, sectors and political and legal cultures in contexts ranging from economic regulation to consumer’s safety and the development of alternative disputes resolution could be assessed“.
New Notice on Verticals – Switzerland
Our good friend David Mamane has informed us that just a few weeks following the reform of the EU rules on verticals, the Swiss Competition Commission had published its own new notice on vertical agreements. The Notice outlines the basic antitrust rules applicable to the drafting and assessment of distribution agreements that relate to Switzerland. A number of rules have been brought in line with the new EU regime (e.g. the double market share treshold).
David’s law firm has published a short memo which nicely summarizes the content of the new notice (see attached document below).
Verticals Notice Newsflash Schellenberg Wittmer
(Image possibly subject to copyrights: source here)
Happy Bday
The Polish Competition Authority – UOKiK – has posted on its website a whole book entitled “Changes in Competition Policy Over the Last Two Decades“.
This book was written to celebrate the 20th anniversary of UOKiK. The list of authors is impressive.
No brainer
We have already commented the Court’s 2009 ruling in Glaxo.
In going through the judgment this morning, I got shocked again.
Frankly speaking, this judgment is a mascarade. What the Court has thrown in this judgment is a straightforward statement that it has no interest in substantive competition law issues. To justify this, the Court dissimulates itself behind (i) the black letter, old-Treaty wording (name it judicial textualism); and (ii) its existing case law (name it judicial conservatism).
Look closely at §§59-63. In fact, it takes the Court just a few lines to quash the CFI’s ruling, which raised a novel – and worth discussing – question of substantive competition law (i.e. the role of consumer welfare under Article 101 TFEU) . Here is what the Court says in this case:
1. We’ve said that a practice restricting parallel trade is a restriction by object a million times (§59)
2. This applies to pharmaceuticals. The AG has said so (!), and we made a case in pharma a while ago. (§§60-62)
3. The wording of the Treaty does not talk of consumer welfare. Competition is thus protected as such.
4. **** off
A discussion of the very issue (regardless of its outcome) would have been – at the very least – welcome. I believe, indeed, that the role of the ECJ is not only (1) to scrutinize cases (judicial review) but (2) to take stances on novel issues and set substantive standards (rule making).
Two final remarks:
- In the EU, executive and legislative institutions can be prosecuted for failure to act. Why is the Court immune from such proceedings?
- Lately, the Court has delivered remarkable judicial output in other fields (e.g. institutional law, the four freedoms, etc.) Why has substantive competition law been left unaffected by this evolution?
(Image possibly subject to copyrights: source here)
Summer time
The good thing about summer time:
- No classes
- No exams
- No conferences
- Less emails
Over the past days, I have managed to clean up my mailbox and, more importantly, to write a new paper, which I just posted on ssrn. It deals with merger remedies in coordinated effects cases.
This is still work in progress. Comments welcome, as usual.
(Picture subject to copyrights: source here)
PS: re. picture – by now, most of you should have understood that I am a huge rock n’ roll fan.
Slides of the 48th GCLC Lunch Talk – Settlements
I post hereafter the slides presented by K. Dekeyser (DG COMP) at the 48th GCLC Lunch Talk last week.
Slides Dekeyser – Putting the Settlement Procedure into Practice – 7-7-2010
Chillin'Competition 
