Regulation through Agencies in the EU: A New Paradigm of European Governance
The Liberalization of State Monopolies in the European Union (EUROPEAN MONOGRAPHS Volume 23)
The WTO and Global Convergence in Telecommunications and Audio-Visual Services
The GCLC will have its fourth annual conference on 19 and 20 June in Brussels. The topic: current trends and issues in cartel enforcement. See below for the programme.
Download gclc_4th_annual_conference_1920_jun_08_programme_and_registration.pdf
The next GCLC Lunch Talk will take place on 23 May. A. Verheyden (Jones Day) and S. Ohlhoff (WilmerHale) will discuss the recent CFI ruling in Deutsche Telekom v. Commission. See below for registration form.
Download registration_form_34th_gclc_lunch_talk_23_may_2008.pdf
I am delighted to announce that together with the FEB (The Belgian Association for Enterprises), my research institute organizes on 5 june 2008 in Brussels a conference on the "hot" issue of EC competition law, namely the rise of a new enforcement paradigm, through the implementation of original legal instruments by the European Commission. Hereafter, a description of the conference topic, as well as the programme and registration form. Please note that the speakers have been asked to prepare papers for the conference (something which is unfortunately becoming increasingly rare in EC competition law events), which will be distributed to participants on the day of the event.
Over the past decade, EC competition law has undergone successive substantive reforms. Whilst most of the legal and economic issues arising from their implementation have now been settled, a new wave of reforms, which could potentially remould the institutional architecture of the EC competition system, is now on the table.
These reforms cover areas including the promotion of private enforcement, settlements and leniency applications for hardcore infringements, commitment decisions, market inquiries, informal regulation through guidelines and guidance letters. The seminar will take a fresh look at the development of alternative enforcement techniques.
High-profile academics, senior officials and prominent practitioners in this domain have been invited to discuss the rationale underlying these reforms and, more importantly, their likely legal and practical consequences.
All participants to the conference will receive a document folder which will include the papers prepared for the conference, as well as a full set of relevant materials.
Download alternative_enforcement_techniques_5_june_2008_programme_and_registration_form.pdf
Luca Radicati di Brozolo (Professor at the University of Milan and Partner, Bonelli Erede Pappalardo) and Assimakis Komninos (White and Case) are the speakers. See here for registration form.
With a bit of delay, I attach below the final programme and registration form for the conference, which will take place on 25 April 2008 in Brussels.
Please see prior post for an explanation of the conference topic.
Please also note that the conference has been credited with 3 CPD points.
Download conference_programme_and_registration_form_25_april_2008_ecmr_and_recent_controversies.pdf
The picture summarizes Scott Cleland's (controversial) competitive assessment.
Remember Arcelor/Mittal, where the Commission was called upon to use its powers under the ECMR to block the trade-unions unfriendly raid launched by an non- EU steel tycoon? Remember Suez/GDF, where the Commission was asked to refrain from using its powers under the ECMR and clear the merger of two" national champions".
Traditionally, the Commission has remained agnostic to concerns (and the ensuing pressures) alien to competition issues. Yet, similar problems arose again in Google/DoubleClick (i.e. data protection issues) and other recent procedures. In light of this, Prof. Alain STROWEL (University Faculties St Louis in Brussels) and I decided, with the support of my LL.M students, to organize a half day conference in Brussels on 25 April.
I am delighted to say that Luc GYSELEN (Arnold & Porter), T. JESTAEDT (Jones Day), A. WINCKLER (Cleary), M. VAN DER WOUDE (Stibbe and University of Rotterdam) and R. ALLENDESALAZAR (Howrey) have accepted our invitation and will talk at the event.
A pre-registration form (to be returned by email) can be found below. The conference room is not extremely large, so please register quickly if interested.
Download conference_25_april_2008_ecmr_and_recent_controversies_preregistration_form.pdf
1. The slides of R. O'Donoghue and D. Waelbroeck on the MSFT Decision have been posted on the GCLC website. See here.
2. My colleague at University, A-L Sibony, has just published an interesting book (which is an extended version of her PhD) the title of which can be translated as follows "The judge and economic reasoning in competition law".
3. Mark your agendas: I am organizing a half day conference on the ECMR in Brussels on 25 of April. More details will follow shortly.
My book on oligopolies and tacit collusion under EC competition law is finally out. It is published by Bruylant/LGDJ, and can be ordered here.
The book is an extended version of my PhD dissertation. It is accompanied of a preface by Prof. Laurence IDOT and a nice foreword by Damien.
In substance, I demonstrate that the structural approach of tacit collusion through the EC merger control system is fraught with numerous shortcomings and, more importantly, could be ineffective under current case-law.
In turn, I assess to what extent Article 81 and 82 EC can be enforced so as to correct, ex post, tacit collusion on oligopolistic markets (a behavioral approach). I deal with this issue from both a substantive perspective - what's behind the obscure concept of abuse of joint dominance on oligopolistic markets? - and an institutional standpoint - how should the rules be enforced, without involving false positives problems and legal uncertainty?
It is a huge relief. The cover page was designed by my best friend.
The GCLC's website, which was left in artificial hibernation for a while, is now alive, and well. Additional updates will be made in the coming weeks.
I have posted a new working paper (02/08), by Profs. Sokol and Stiegert, which is dedicated to the under-researched subject of international cooperation re. technical assistance and capacity building.
Here's the abstract: In the past 15 years, the world has witnessed the large scale introduction of antitrust/competition policy as an instrument of market-facilitating government policy. Building the capacity of young antitrust institutions in the developing world and in transition economies is a means to improving the capacity of these agencies to police against anti-competitive conduct. Many countries have augmented their development of competition agencies with technical assistance (TA) support. Determining how best to design TA programs to interact with nascent and financially constrained competition agencies is a difficult and complex matter. The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of the TA-agency partnership. This chapter focuses specifically on factors that lead to improved effectiveness of TA. In a field that has been lacking for empirical evaluation, we use a unique dataset of responses from 38 competition agencies that have received technical assistance from the period 1996-2003. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that issues of timing and absorptive capacity of particular forms of technical assistance within a larger political economy consideration maximize the impact and effectiveness of technical assistance provided to competition agencies.
Please do not hesitate to contact me, should you want to submit a paper for our WP series.
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