Publisher's Synopsis
Everyone recognizes that competition is the process by which companies
are induced to offer consumers the lowest prices and introduce innovations to
earn higher profits. Antitrust enforcement should focus on real competition
problems, on behaviour that has actual or likely restrictive effects on the
market, and which harms consumers; it should be aimed at protecting
competition and not competitors. A real revolution in the application of
European competition law took place with the modernization package implemented
in the last few years, involving the now-decentralized application of Articles
81 and 82 EC, new merger regulations, and the ongoing review of guidelines for
the prosecution of abuses of a dominant position. This book presents the
proceedings of the First Lisbon Competition Law and Economics Conference under
the auspices of the Portuguese Competition Authority. It was a ground-breaking
event in which leading European judges and competition enforcers, as well as
some of the leading world economists and law professors on competition issues,
took a critical look at the instruments of competition policy conceived to
implement EC Regulation 1/2003, with a broader focus on modernization in the
EU and in the USA. In wide-ranging discussions they evaluated theories of harm
to competition for the most frequently-occurring types of abusive behaviour,
and developed guidelines for a competition policy that offers both an
economically sound framework and a workable and operational tool for making
rules that can be enforced effectively and with a reasonable degree of
predictability.
Among the many issues arising in the proceedings recorded in this book are the following:
- special powers of investigation;
- leniency programs and individual sanctions;
- the problem of “forum shopping” in the present merger regulation system;
- the impact of regulations and competition on economic growth;
- competition and regulatory costs;
- judicial review of the European Commission merger decisions;
- consumer welfare effects of mergers;
- who should apply competition law to utilities;
- and the link between competition and innovation and the development of a country.
The book will be of immeasurable value to judges, academics, and
economic and law practitioners active in competition policy and enforcement,
as well as to officials of European national competition authorities. Equally
interested will be students of law and economics concerned with competition
issues, and non-governmental organizations dealing with consumer protection
and private enforcement of competition law. By giving ample evidence of the
impact of competition and efficient regulation on economic growth, this
far-reaching book will help elucidate the main current topics in need of
further reform and underline the importance of competition policy in modern
market economies.
