This year the 2004 EU Merger Regulation turns 20 years old. To mark this significant milestone DG COMP organised a conference, bringing together experts from across the competition field. Building on such momentum the conference was designed to take stock, reflect on what the 2004 reform has...

This report models and analyses various aspects of the macroeconomic impact of competition policy interventions by the European Commission over the period 2012-2022. Based on information provided by the Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) on its merger interventions, cartel...

Following the judgment of the Court of Justice and especially the Opinion of the Advocate General in the CDC Hydrogen Peroxide case, arbitration agreements on disputes concerning damages for infringements of the competition rules of the TFEU have been interpreted as being contrary to the...

In this paper, we comment on the debate about guidelines for Art. 102 TFEU in the face of the challenges brought by digital ecosystems and abuse of dominance in related markets. We take the perspective of dynamic competition economics and derive four recommendations for the future enforcement of...

With the rise of Web 2.0, and a variety of other digital services and products, personal data represents a key input to a growing number of digital services and products, including, but not limiting to, social networks, search engines, and/or online dating services. Data could be harvested by...

This open access book is the first to systematically explore competition policy in fintech markets. Drawing from the expertise of law scholars, economists, and social and natural scientists from the EU and the US, this edited collection explores the competitive dynamics, market organisation, and...

The Annual Report on Competition Policy explains how the Commission implements competition policy and how it contributes to the European economy and to improving the welfare of EU citizens. The Report is a non-exhaustive overview of the most important policy and legislative initiatives, and of...

The Annual Report on Competition Policy explains how the Commission implements competition policy and how it contributes to the European economy and to improving the welfare of EU citizens. The Report is a non-exhaustive overview of the most important policy and legislative initiatives, and of...

The Annual Report on Competition Policy explains how the Commission implements competition policy and how it contributes to the European economy and to improving the welfare of EU citizens. The Report is a non-exhaustive overview of the most important policy and legislative initiatives, and of...

The 'Annual report on competition policy' explains how the Commission implements competition policy and how it contributes to the European economy and to improving the welfare of EU citizens. The Report is a non-exhaustive overview of the most important policy and legislative initiatives, and of...

This report models and analyses various aspects of the macroeconomic impact of competition policy interventions by the European Commission over the period 2012-2021. Based on information provided by the Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) on its merger interventions, cartel...

The 'Annual report on competition policy' explains how the Commission implements competition policy and how it contributes to the European economy and to improving the welfare of EU citizens. The Report is a non-exhaustive overview of the most important policy and legislative initiatives, and of...

The 'Annual report on competition policy' explains how the Commission implements competition policy and how it contributes to the European economy and to improving the welfare of EU citizens. The Report is a non-exhaustive overview of the most important policy and legislative initiatives, and of...

In our study, ‘Policy Report: Priority setting in EU and national competition law enforcement’ (“Report”), we conducted a systematic and comprehensive mapping of the procedural and substantive rules and practices that define the way competition authorities of 27 EU Member States, the...

Sporting associations that act as regulators and are also active in organizing sporting events are well-established in many sports. However, given that there is a risk that they might exploit their regulatory power to foreclose organizers of rival events, the question arises as to how far EU...

EU competition law potentially has a role to play in the pursuit of sustainability goals and the fight against climate change. The need to interpret the EU competition law provisions in a manner consistent with the sustainability objectives that the EU is committed to – the sustainable...

This brief policy paper highlights three issues related to the complementary nature of the Digital Markets Act and the EU antitrust rules. These include (i) practical considerations on the choice of enforcement tool on the part of the European Commission and national competition authorities,...

Innovation plays a crucial role in defining competitive dynamics. Given this fact, one might expect ‘innovation’ to play a consistent role in antitrust law. The present article conducts a systematic content analysis of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union to test this...

The EU agenda for improving competitiveness is missing in action. Economic competitiveness has been a central plank in the development of the European Union - a relentless quest for policies that lead to more prosperity and that make European companies in world markets more successful. However,...

The German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) held that the use of narrow price parity clauses (NPCs) between Booking.com and hotels infringed Art. 101 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), confirming the Federal Cartel Office's decision. The Supreme Court based its judgment mainly on...

The article considers the Norwegian experience of legal regulation of competition with the emphasis on measures of legal liability applied to violators of competition law. The activity of the Norwegian Competition Authority is considered in detail, namely its structure and functions

The co-legislators adopted the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in July 2022. The text is landmark legislation that imposes a list of ex-ante obligations and interdictions on large online platforms acting as “gatekeepers” in some core platform services (CPS). Yet, the DMA also imposes an obligation...

We consider the merits of the recent EU’s Digital Markets Act from the perspective of innovation and value creation. We conceptualize innovation as new interactions being created by the digital platform leading to ‘value creation’, in contrast to facilitating existing interactions or...

Whilst the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is yet to be notified to the European Commission, once notified it will certainly require a substantial competition law assessment. This article discusses the Commission’s decisional practice relating to market definition in gaming...

In October 2022, the European Union will introduce an ex ante regulatory system to control the conduct of companies that will be known as “digital gatekeepers”. This will take the form of an EU Regulation and will be called the “Digital Markets Act” (DMA). The system is heavily inspired...

In its “Discussion Paper for Interim Report No. 5” of February 2022, the ACCC asked for suggestions on updating competition and consumer law for digital platform services. This paper addresses the larger issues involved from a specifically “European perspective”. To these ends, the...

In Austria, the Federal Competition Authority does not adopt its own infringement decisions but needs to apply to the Cartel Court to have a fine imposed or an infringement terminated. For the purposes of Regulation 1/2003, the Cartel Court is therefore designated as a (judicial) national...

"The book examines whether EU competition policy is applied fairly and consistently to EU and non-EU firms despite persistent political pressure from member states for a relaxation of the rules and deals with the dilemma of regional organisations in the global political economy. Focussing on the...

Whereas the European Commission’s Better Regulation Agenda advances a broad standard for evidence in legislation, EU competition law more narrowly relies on economic evidence focused on welfare effects. This article explores this inherent tension by means of a case study of the 2018-2022...

This Article aims to delineate the extent to which potentially anticompetitive behavior that simultaneously improve user privacy are cognizable as efficiencies or objective justifications within the context of unilateral conduct cases in European competition law. After mapping the existing...

This paper explores the role which Member State-led infringement proceedings can play in overcoming the EU’s rule of law crisis, and hypotheses that it can prove helpful in breaking the current impasse. It begins by understanding why the EU’s “traditional” rule of law enforcement...

The practice of the Slovak competition authority does not offer any specific guidance concerning competition law enforcement in the digital era. In Slovakia, no infringement decisions concerning digital business practices have been adopted yet, nor is there any case under investigation

This article explores the role of sustainability in EU competition law from the perspective of the theory of legal realism. It addresses the issue by analysing three interrelated themes. It first outlines the main normative and methodological arguments of the protagonists and the opponents of a...