Chillin'Competition

With all the fuzz about the Greek financial tragedy, I cannot help but drawing comparisons with what happened last year in  the private sector. The most glaring similarities are:

• Not unlike the subprime crisis, this crisis stems from problems of asymetrical information and moral hazard, with Greece lying on the real status of its finances, and fooling its European Monetary Union partners;
• We here have a country that has become “too big too fail“, and Member States have to rescue it;
• Massive State aids are now provided. Those aids fall short of the prohibition of the TFEU. Yet, like aids granted last year to banks, this rescue scheme distorts competition between disciplined and careless governments. Of course, some may argue that Europe is not an area where Member States compete against each other,  but where countries  act jointly, in a spirit of solidarity. Well, as sad as this may sound, this is plain untrue. Each Member State individually defines its  budget seeking to maximize domestic wealth. In addition, the competence over the main economic  issues lies at the national level (social security, pensions, military, research and education, etc.);
• What’s missing in  the European Monetary Union is a credible regulatory framework, with tough enforcement mechanisms.

Another puzzling thing:  some of you may have heard that regionalism in on the rise in Belgium. A handful of influential Dutch-speaking politicians – who come from the wealthy northern part of Belgium –  no longer want to subsidize the poor, French-speaking southern region. Now here’s something which puzzles me: how can those guys can reconcile this with the billions of € they are ready to lend to Greece (and more generally with their alleged pledge to build a stronger Europe)?

I proved most of my colleagues wrong. I have been working for 10 days on a Mac, as a temporary replacement for my good old PC.  Contrary to what they predicted, I did not fall in love with the Apple ecosystem. While using Apple’s OS and, more generally, this computer, I felt  like playing with a toy.  In addition, the protocols to launch apps and softwares are really counterintuitive.

So a piece of – personal – advice for lawyers in general, whose primary occupation is emailing and drafting documents: if you don’t care for design, but primarily for price, then don’t  succumb to this irrational, politically correct, Apple frenzy.

And now two questions to competition lawyers. Here in Belgium, most retailers charge similar prices for Apple products. Is the situation the same in other Member States? If so, may the source of this price rigidity hinge on some sort of RPM-like system?

Finally, check this out: DG COMP’s blockbuster on competition policy and the consumer. The computer brand used in the movie is a most unfortunate coincidence. Borrowing to the semantics of the movie industry, I’d be tempted to talk here of a Commission “exhibition” bias (thanks to Pierre Sabbadini for the pointer)…

PS: Thanks to Julie Clarke for the kind words on the computer crash.

PS2: I found the above picture just hilarious, and could not resist posting it.

PS3: The bias is a favourable one. In its past decisional activities, the Commission has seemed particularly friendly to Apple and particularly unfriendly to other software/computer developpers. Full disclosure: in my previous life as a practitioner, I have done a bit of work for a rival software developper.

Amongst my various University activities (and besides research), the one I prefer is to manage the ULg’s bilingual LLM in EU Competition and IP law (created, back in the day, in 2004, by my predecessor Prof. Damien Geradin). 

This LL.M has been increasingly successful in the past years, attracting students from everywhere in Europe and outside (Peru, China, etc.). I trust the many conferences we organize in Brussels, the bilingual format of the programme (English-French) and the opportunities for publication in e-competitions are interesting for prospective students.

Since my appointment a few years ago, I have nonetheless had the feeling that the programme could be improved, in particular by increasing its focus on core IP and competition law subjects.

To this end, I have recently undertaken, with the help of some colleagues – I shall here thank in particular Prof. Alain Strowel and my assistant Norman Neyrinck – to bring improvements to the LL.M.

Following weeks of ruminations and discussions, I am proud to disclose the 2.0 version of the bilingual LLM in competition and IP law of the University of Liege. The new programme, which can be found below, will enter into force in the next academic year 2010-2011. A brochure is in the pipeline, and will be out shortly.

The challenge now: how to best disseminate this without being ripped off having to pay thousands of euros to commercial advertising websites? If you have any clue, or feel like helping, please drop me a line. If you know people who could send our programme to students, please also contact me.