Competition Law

This volume presents a comprehensive legal and economic analysis of competition law remedies in Europe. First, it examines the philosophy and overall objectives of competition law remedies and their interaction with the substantive and institutional aspects of competition law enforcement. It analyses the impact of specific types of remedies on the emergence of an optimal enforcement system by looking to legal and economic literature, case law and empirical research. Second, it identifies the competition law remedies which have been put into effect in the context of antitrust law enforcement and merger control in Europe. In the field of antitrust, different issues may arise in devising adequate remedies for cartel infringements, antitrust law infringements involving unilateral abuses of market power, and infringements involving access to proprietary information or resources. In all these cases different types of remedies may be imposed, such as contractual remedies, damages and behavioural or structural remedies. In the context of merger control the prospective nature of the analysis requires the consideration of a number of factors, such as the costs of remedial action, the probability of compliance, the short- or long-term impact of the remedy, the risk of strategic conduct of the merging parties, and the choice of appropriate monitoring and compliance mechanisms on an on-going basis for the future. The third part of this study examines the procedural implications of injunctions, interim measures, private action-led injunctions, measures-declaratory actions and procedural/administrative issues in public enforcement. The fourth part concludes by examining creative remedies and reforms that should be made to the current regime of competition law remedies in Europe. It also explores the interaction between competition law remedies adopted by different jurisdictions in a world of multi-jurisdictional competition law enforcement from procedural and public policy perspectives.