This book provides the first comprehensive account of the New EU Competition Law: an emerging understanding of the discipline that breaks from the consensus of the early 2000s and that ventures into uncharted territories. Competition law has undergone fundamental transformations in the past decade, from the rise and fall of the 'effects-based approach' to the challenge of Big Tech and the growing interaction with intellectual property. Making sense of these changes and fully grasping their implications can be difficult. The book discusses the shift from traditional enforcement in the industrial era to the sort of intervention that a knowledge-based economy demands. It presents the changes that the field is undergoing (policy priorities, relationship with regulation and intangible assets, move away from efficiency and consumer welfare) and illustrates them by reference to the most significant developments. The analysis includes an up-to-date evaluation of the Digital Markets Act and addresses the application of EU competition law to key areas, including energy, pharma, telecommunications and online platforms. Conceived as a 'modular' book, practitioners and advanced students will find it useful as a map to navigate the underlying trends and as an in-depth dissection of the key case law and administrative practice of the past decade.

A ground breaking study of how the interaction between the European Commission and the EU Courts has shaped EU competition law.

Succinct and concise, this textbook covers all the procedural and substantive aspects of EU competition law. It explores primary and secondary law through the prism of ECJ case law. Abuse of a dominant position and merger control are discussed and a separate chapter on cartels ensures the student receives the broadest possible perspective on the subject. In addition, the book's consistent structure aids understanding: section summaries underline key principles, questions reinforce learning and essay discussion topics encourage further exploration. By setting out the economic principles which underpin the subject, the author allows the student to engage with the complexity of competition law with confidence. Integrated examples and an uncluttered writing style make this required reading for all students of the subject.

The controversy surrounding EU competition rules has grown in recent years. Pressure from such phenomena as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the digital economy have fostered a fragmentation in the interpretation of the rules at both national and EU levels. This volume takes stock of the current situation, assessing the successes and failures of the prevailing ‘modernisation’ policy and setting forth a range of potential legal adaptations designed to offer the right responses to a rapidly changing world. The book’s contributions are based on papers delivered at the 2022 Annual Conference of the Global Competition Law Center (GCLC) at the College of Europe in Bruges. The authors include prominent practitioners and academics, members of the European Commission, representatives of national competition authorities, and judges from both EU and national courts. They address such salient issues as the following: free competition versus ‘regulated competition’ as alternative or complementary models; new methods for the identification of consumer harm and benefits; sui generis competition law regimes for specific sectors; State aid enforcement and crisis management; and the green and digital objectives and their legal and political implications. Taken together, the essays provide extensive treatment of the EU Courts’ jurisprudence and the literature in the field. For practitioners, policymakers and academics working with competition law, the book will clearly explain the new competencies of the Commission, raise awareness of the latest case law on the analysis of effects, and ensure a forward-looking approach to competition law enforcement in Europe.

Information Exchange Between Competitors in EU Competition Law Martin Gassler Competing firms often exchange information in order to make more informed market decisions which can help to overcome market inefficiencies. However, an abundance of legal and economic research as well as case law has shown that information exchange may also enable firms to engage in collusion more readily and sustain it longer. This book is the first to concentrate on this challenging topic of EU competition law in such depth. It focuses on ‘pure’ information exchanges – exchanges that are not ancillary to a wider pro-competitive or anticompetitive conduct – and thoroughly explains the characteristics of such information exchanges, their pro-competitive and anticompetitive effects and discusses all the relevant legal aspects for their assessment. The author provides a robust analytical framework for assessing information exchanges under Article 101 TFEU, focusing on the risk of collusive outcomes and what types of information exchange are particularly harmful. With detailed attention to the leading cases on information exchange, the analysis examines the most important aspects for assessing information exchange between competitors, in particular: the concept of a concerted practice; the concepts of a restriction by object and effect, including their similarities and differences; the importance of evidentiary issues; the issue of signalling via advance public announcements; factors that facilitate collusion; efficiencies of information exchange, including market transparency; the legal challenges of tackling mere parallel conduct; facilitative practices in the Commission Guidelines, including the Horizontal Cooperation Guidelines; and safe harbours for certain types of information exchange. The book offers clear guidance on how to identify and thus distinguish information exchange that restricts competition by its object and information exchange that restricts competition (only) by its effects. It offers practical solutions to some of the perceived issues when assessing information exchanges. With its wealth of analysis not available from other sources, this concise yet comprehensive review of a much-debated topic in competition law offers clear guidance for practitioners in assessing the issues surrounding information exchange. The book will also be welcomed by competition law academics, competition lawyers and competition authority officials throughout Europe.

This new Sixth Edition of a major work by the well-known competition law team at Van Bael & Bellis in Brussels brings the book up to date to take account of the many developments in the case law and relevant legislation that have occurred since the Fifth Edition in 2010. The authors have also taken the opportunity to write a much-extended chapter on private enforcement and a dedicated section on competition law in the pharmaceutical sector. As one would expect, the new edition continues to meet the challenge for businesses and their counsel, providing a thoroughly practical guide to the application of the EU competition rules. The critical commentary cuts through the theoretical underpinnings of EU competition law to expose its actual impact on business. In this comprehensive new edition, the authors examine such notable developments as the following: important rulings concerning the concept of a restriction by object under Article 101; the extensive case law in the field of cartels, including in relation to cartel facilitation and price signalling; important Article 102 rulings concerning pricing and exclusivity, including the Post Danmark and Intel judgments, as well as standard essential patents; the current block exemption and guidelines applicable to vertical agreements, including those applicable to the motor vehicle sector; developments concerning online distribution, including the Pierre Fabre and Coty rulings; the current guidelines and block exemptions in the field of horizontal cooperation, including the treatment of information exchange; the evolution of EU merger control, including court defeats suffered by the Commission and the case law on procedural infringements; the burgeoning case law related to pharmaceuticals, including concerning reverse payment settlements; the current technology transfer guidelines and block exemption; procedural developments, including in relation to the right to privacy, access to file, parental liability, fining methodology, inability to pay and hybrid settlements; the implementation of the Damages Directive and the first interpretative rulings. As a comprehensive, up-to-date and above all practical analysis of the EU competition rules as developed by the Commission and EU Courts, this authoritative new edition of a classic work stands alone. Like its predecessors, it will be of immeasurable value to both business persons and their legal advisers.

This handbook offers detailed descriptions of EU competition law, including mergers and public authorities. Above all, it analyzes and discusses recent decisions of the ECJ and the General Court. Presenting systematically structured and theoretically founded content, the book also includes recommendations for practitioners. Special attention is paid to the scope of penalties and the influence on fundamental rights. Rounding out the book, the conflict between safeguarding confidential information and the effectiveness of private and public enforcement is discussed intensively in the context of the new Directive 2014/104/EU.