Chillin'Competition

Derecho de la competencia has upgraded. see http://lalibrecompetencia.com/

New design, new name and more contributors from different jurisdictions of Latin America:

In addition to Juan David, Ignacio de León (Venezuela, Queen Mary U. of London),Pablo Márquez (Colombia, Harvard U.and U. of Oxford), Victor Pavón Villamayor (México, U. of Oxford), Javier Tapia (Chile, U. College of London), Leopoldo Ubiratan (Brazil, LSE and U. of Sao Paulo) and Natalia Barrera (Colombia, U. Javeriana), have joined the venture.

The brilliant, prolific, US judge and scholar Richard Posner recently had a revelation.  See here. Not a philosophical U-turn, but close.

Found on D. Gutierez’s blog.

(Image possibly subject to copyrights: source here)

European Competition Policy and the Lisbon Treaty: Dawn of a new era or business as usual?– Patrick Vincent (P.Vincent@student.ulg.ac.be)

In the post-Lisbon Treaty era, the reference to “free and undistorted competition” previously enshrined in Article 3(g) EC has disappeared from the forefront of the EU treaties. The present dissertation seeks to assess whether the elimination of this provision – and its replacement by a Protocol appended to the Treaty – is likely to affect the effectiveness of European competition policy. Whilst scholars are divided on this issue, there nonetheless seems to be a growing concern that European competition policy might as a result be increasingly influenced by external, public-policy, considerations, which to date have played a marginal role in the Commission’s orthodox enforcement policy. To test the veracity of this proposition, the present dissertation will review a number of concrete practical issues (environmental agreements, etc.), where considerations alien to core competition concerns might be invoked by stakeholders.

I attach the slides I presented in Madrid. The first set of slides is an introduction to EU competition law. The second set of slides deals with the concepts of agreements, concerted practices and decisions of associations of undertakings.

General introduction – xiii_curso_de_derecho_de_la_competencia_ieb (1

Agreements decisions of association of undertakings and concerted practices – xiii_curso_de_derecho_de_l

BTW: Iberia is amongst the least professional and reliable airlines. My flight, which was supposed to leave Madrid yesterday at 7.15 pm, eventually left at 3.15 am. I arrived at home this morning around 7.00 am…. This is not the first time I have problems with this company. I filed a formal complaint. Let’s see how things turn out.

(image possibly subject to copyrights: see here)

The Strategic Use of EU Competition Law: Typology and Assessment – Anne-Sophie Come (annesophie.come@gmail.com)

Legal affairs are no longer a “support” function for business entities. Firms increasingly rely on legal rules, proceedings and remedies, as strategic, profit maximising, levers. As a result of this evolution, firms increasingly seek to use (some say “instrumentalize”) the legal system in order to gain competitive advantages over/inflict competitive disadvantages to their rivals. In this context, it is the purpose of this dissertation to review the extent to which firms seek to use, and have used, EU competition law for strategic business reasons alien to the mere eradication of anticompetitive conduct in the market place. To this end, it provides a new reading of a number of well-known cases  decided by the Commission and the Court of Justice.

An Analysis of the Decision of the Commission of 12 may 2009 concerning RFID and Data Protection – Laurie Caucheteux (Laurie.Caucheteux@student.ulg.ac.be)

Green Technology Licenses: Strategies and Practices – Uliana Sylvia (S.Uliana@student.ulg.ac.be)