In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten sind weltweit so viele Hochhäuser gebaut worden wie nie zuvor. Auch in Europa, wo lange Zeit vor allem Kirchtürme und Schornsteine vertikale Akzente setzten, prägen sie vermehrt das Gesicht der Städte. Die neuere monumentale Architektur ist mit vielfältigen Versprechen, Begehrlichkeiten und Befürchtungen verknüpft. Am Beispiel von Paris, London und Wien diskutiert diese Studie, welche Vorstellungen von Urbanität dabei im Spiel sind. Sie verortet das vertikale Bauen im Spannungsfeld von globalisierten Vergleichshorizonten und städtischem Eigensinn. More high-rises have been built worldwide over the past two decades than ever before. Even in Europe, where vertical accents have traditionally been placed by steeples and chimneys, towering buildings are increasingly shaping the face of cities. This new monumental architecture is associated with a variety of promises, desires and fears. Based on the examples of Paris, London and Vienna, this study discusses the concepts of urbanity that come into play here. It contextualizes vertical construction in the field of tension between globalized horizons of comparison on the one hand and urban specificity on the other.

The second of two volumes, this text discusses the vertical issues involved in regulatory reform. The contributors describe in detail the regulatory reforms which are needed or have been initiated in nine major industrial sectors, including automobiles, textiles and clothing, retail trade, chemicals, banking, road transport, telecoms, electricity and (scheduled) air transport. They argue that regulatory reform can, more often than not, help improve the competitiveness of companies while generating net growth effects for the European Union as a whole.

Providing a detailed and practical analysis of the entire scope of the law relating to vertical agreements, including the new general block exemption regulations and the Vertical Guidelines, this book is an indispensible tool for all practitioners active in the drafting or reviewing of vertical agreements.

Because the EU depends on a very small number of external suppliers for its natural gas, energy security issues inevitably arise. In theory, competition law should regulate and adjudicate such issues. Yet, because contracts between EU companies and producers are highly sensitive and politically charged, the application of EU competition law to natural gas contracts is far from clear. This important book, drawing on ECJ case law, Commission administrative cases and inquiries, and the full range of relevant legal and economic theory, provides an extremely valuable and detailed study of how EU competition law can be applied to long-term natural gas capacity reservation and commodity contracts. Issues and topics such as the following arise in the course of the analysis: Third Gas Market Directive provisions; Article 102 TFEU cases on strategic under-investment; pre-liberation or "legacy" gas contracts (e.g., with Algeria and Russia); "right of first refusal"; take-or-pay requirement; third-party access; ownership unbundling; effect of elimination of priority access regimes; short-term trading; spot markets; and law and economics of vertical restraints. Focusing on the foreclosing effect of long-term upstream commodity contracts, the author recommends restrictions on the use of capacity reservation contracts, and analyses the efficacy of security of supply as a competition law defence in cases relating to such contracts.

This book tackles the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation ("VBER"). The VBER 2022 is the new playbook in Europe for vertical agreements. Vertical agreements, i.e. between parties from different levels of the production or distribution chain, are ubiquitous in the EU economy. Vertical agreements which appreciably restrict competition are, in principle, void, and subject to fines. By exception, agreements may already fall outside the scope of competition law or may be exempt if their pro-competitive effects prevail. Whether they do or not requires an individual assessment of each agreement, with respective legal uncertainty. The VBER, however, is the shortcut to legally certain vertical agreements because it exempts groups of vertical agreements from the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements. It therefore builds the practical core of distribution law. Only understanding and implementing the VBER ensures a compliant distribution set-up. This goes for all kinds of vertical agreements, especially: digital, dual, exclusive and selective distribution plus franchise. The VBER 2022 is intended to take into account market developments, in particular the strong growth in e-commerce. Digitalisation has reinforced the trend toward verticalization – and thus toward dual distribution. The VBER 2022 now "reboots" the existing playbook, making it fit for digital distribution. And this book shall help – as a shortcut to understanding the VBER – to quickly and easily pass the transition to the new rules. This book is written from the distribution / contract drafting perspective. It is born out of the author’s practice as German attorney-at-law and partner in the international law firm Taylor Wessing. This book aims at providing private practitioners, in-house counsels as well as officers within authorities and judges practical guidance on the “rebooted” competition law regime in the European Union, including many examples of provisions to be used, especially in distribution and franchise agreements. It also tables and checklists for creating new and adapting existing agreements to the VBER. This book has been written while accompanying the reform discussions and the introduction of the VBER 2022 as an author, speaker and private practitioner.