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The 2nd edition of this book provides an updated comprehensive analysis of the European Commission's dawn raid practices from a due process perspective. Examining the obligations imposed by the Charter and the ECHR and the response of the Luxembourg and Strasbourg Courts, the book shows that whereas the Strasbourg Court manages to strike a balance between efficiency concerns and fundamental rights, the approach of the EU Courts is not equally balanced. The dawn raid is a powerful tool on which the European Commission relies heavily in its antitrust investigations. In 2022, the Commission carried out dawn raids in private homes for the first time in many years and it has declared its intent to make greater use of the power to inspect private premises. Furthermore, the European Commission is expanding its dawn raid practices into new areas of law. Both the Digital Markets Act and the Foreign Subsidies Regulation empower the Commission to carry out dawn raids and to impose heavy fines on anyone failing to cooperate. Ensuring adequate procedural safeguards is therefore more important than ever.The book provides an essential and timely examination of this important subject, and is of great practical interest to companies, practitioners, and enforcers. It is also of theoretical interest, offering stimulating reflections on the effectiveness and legitimacy of the Commission's enforcement powers.

In der Eurokrise wurde die Arbeitspolitik zum strategischen Feld politischer Auseinandersetzungen zwischen »neoliberalen« und »sozialregulativen« Kräften. Zwischen 2009 und 2017 wurde in der Europäischen Union ein neues arbeitspolitisches Regimes etabliert, das primär auf die Förderung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zugeschnitten ist. Felix Syrovatka analysiert die hinter den institutionellen Transformationsprozessen liegenden Konflikte und legt eine tiefgreifende und detaillierte Charakterisierung der neuen europäischen Arbeitspolitik vor. Er verdeutlicht die institutionellen Verschiebungen und die veränderte Funktionsweise anhand konkreter Beispiele und Fallanalysen und rekonstruiert dabei die konfliktreichen politischen Entscheidungen.

International Competition Law Series [ICLS], Volume 89 Designed to deter anticompetitive conduct and to ensure full compensation for loss and damage caused by competition infringements, the Antitrust Damages Directive has become a crucial factor in companies'risk management planning. This first book of its kind offers a comparative overview, practical and authoritative, of the implementation and application of private enforcement rules in each EU Member State as well as in the post-Brexit United Kingdom, covering legislation and case law to date. For leading jurisdictions where practice is already well developed, there are more detailed chapters, with perspectives of judges, competition authorities, practitioners, and economists. The contributors – all experts in the use of EU competition law in their respective jurisdictions – cover the provisions of the Directive in detail, including the following: requirement of full compensation; rules preventing overcompensation; court's power to estimate damages that cannot be precisely quantified; joint and several liability for infringing undertakings; coordination between public and private enforcement; provisions related to passing-on; certain rules on admissibility of evidence; rules on limitation periods; and consensual dispute resolution. In its detailed explanations of shared best practices and its highlighting of opportunities for convergence, the book provides much-needed insight into judicial practice and thinking, the economic approaches and strategies relevant to damages, and the coordination between public and private enforcement. These expert views will prove invaluable for practitioners wishing to see how the law and practice might evolve in their own jurisdictions, as well as into the problems that have arisen or might arise in the future.

Private Enforcement of European Competition and State Aid Law Current Challenges and the Way Forward Edited by: Ferdinand Wollenschläger, Wolfgang Wurmnest & Thomas M.J. Möllers The overlapping European Union (EU) regimes of competition law and State aid law both provide mechanisms allowing private plaintiffs to claim compensation for losses or damages. It is thus of significant practical value to provide, as this book does, analysis and guidance on achieving enforcement of such claims, written by renowned authorities in the two fields. The book examines the two areas of law both from an EU perspective and from the perspectives of private enforcement in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. In country reports for these major jurisdictions, as well as in more general and comparative chapters, the authors focus on such issues as the following: impediments to private enforcement; which entity is liable for damages; binding effect of decisions of competition authorities; limitation of actions; collective actions and pooling of claims; enforcement of the standstill obligation (Article 108(3) TFEU); remedies and information deficits; cooperation and coordination between national courts and the European Commission; transposition of the so-called Damages Directive (Directive 2014/104/EU) by the EU Member States; extent to which the strengthening of private enforcement of competition law has a spillover effect on State aid law; and prospects for harmonisation of State aid law. A concluding section identifies enforcement deficits and proposes ways to improve the existing legal framework. As an in-depth assessment of key obstacles and best practices in private enforcement actions, this highly informative and practical volume facilitates choice of the best forum for competition and State aid law cases. Academics and practitioners engaged with this important area of European law will appreciate the authors'awareness of the economic need and legal particularities which could generate an effective European system of private enforcement of legitimate claims under EU competition and State aid law.

Sono ormai trascorsi undici anni dall'ultima edizione, e vent'anni dalla prima, della prima serie di questo Codice, a cura dei Proff. Riccardo Alessi ed Enzo Cannizzaro (con la collaborazione dell'avv. Elena Bozza). In questi anni, la fisionomia del sistema di applicazione della normativa antitrust a livello di Unione europea è mutata in modo significativo. Centrale, in tal senso, è stata la spinta al decentramento dell'applicazione degli attuali articoli 101 e 102 del TFUE, in favore dei giudici e delle autorità nazionali di concorrenza, avviata con il regolamento (CE) n. 1/2003. La crescente importanza e pervasività delle regole di concorrenza dell'Unione europea, cui spetta, a titolo di competenza esclusiva ai sensi dell'articolo 3 del TFUE, lettera b), la loro definizione, si riflette nella scelta di collocare queste ultime nella prima parte della nuova serie del Codice, in linea, peraltro, con il carattere di “modello” rivestito dalle stesse rispetto alle normative nazionali (Tratto dalla Premessa)

Starting in the 1980s, competitive pressures and the ideology of competitiveness have shaken and transformed traditional models of development, public policy, and governance in Europe.This edited book carries out a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and innovative analysis of the relationship between competitiveness and solidarity in the contemporary European Union. It offers an original contribution to the scholarly debates on the current developments and challenges of welfare states, social and economic policies, and forms of governance in the European Union. Bringing together an international team of cutting-edge scholars in the social sciences and the humanities, Competitiveness and Solidarity in the European Union sheds light on the conceptual richness and policy relevance of these relationships, pointing to important avenues to make the European Union more economically successful and socially fairer. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union studies and, more broadly, of EU Law, Public Policy, Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, and Contemporary History.

This book was originally published by Claeys and Casteels, now formally part of Edward Elgar Publishing. Competition policy continues to evolve rapidly in the energy sector, in line with the speed of change in energy markets. As markets decarbonise, new competition challenges develop, as'traditional'hydrocarbons industries contract and renewables ones explode. Markets are changing, and competition policy with it. The new, 5th, edition reflects these changes.

This book addresses the question of how competition authorities assess mergers in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector so as to promote competition in innovation. A closer look at the question reveals that it is far more complex and difficult to answer for the ICT, telecommunications and multi-sided platform (MSP) economy than for more traditional sectors of the economy. This has led many scholars to re-think and question whether the current merger control framework is suitable for the ICT sector, which is often also referred to as the new economy. The book pursues an interdisciplinary approach combining insights from law, economics and corporate strategy. Further, it has a comparative dimension, as it discusses the practices of the US, the EU and, wherever relevant, of other competition authorities from around the globe. Considering that the research was conducted in the EU, the practices of the European Commission remain a key aspect of the content.Considering its normative dimension, the book concentrates on the substantive aspects of merger control. To facilitate a better understanding of the most important points, the book also offers a brief overview of the procedural aspects of merger control in the EU, the US and the UK, and discusses recent amendments to Austrian and German law regarding the notification threshold. Given its scope, the book offers an invaluable guide for competition law scholars, practitioners in the field, and competition authorities worldwide.

Competition enforcement authorities use settlements as a tool to ensure compliance with antitrust law. Companies can make commitments to remedy breaches, ensuring that they avoid litigation and potential fines and reputational damage. The author of this highly original and innovative book shows that, rather than fines or arguing principles of competition law in litigation, antitrust settlements (namely U.S. consent decrees and EU commitment decisions) hold the key to globally effective enforcement, particularly in the digital and blockchain era. Antitrust law does not necessarily need to be abolished, but rather should be fully exploited as an economic regulation led by antitrust settlements. In supporting her thesis, the author examines such elements of competition enforcement as the following: drawbacks of allowing the courts to regulate markets; whether antitrust settlements sacrifice antitrust deterrence; how settlements rapidly and surgically regulate markets; comparative analysis between U.S. consent decrees and EU commitment decisions; economic analysis on the adoption of antitrust settlements in both the U.S. and EU markets from 2013 to 2018; fundamental role of antitrust settlements in regulating the current digital markets; and comprehensive description on how to use antitrust settlements to regulate the data industry. With its thorough guidance on U.S. consent decrees and EU commitment decisions from their functioning to their characteristics and procedure—and its extensive treatment of the main antitrust remedies available and used in enforcing of antitrust law in both the U.S. and EU—the book provides both an economic and a legal analysis of the functioning and the scope of antitrust settlements. It assesses the influence of decisions on companies'behavior and agencies'practice, using economic analysis to show the procompetitive or anticompetitive effects of remedies, with special attention to digital markets. Because markets have become so dynamic and unpredictable that is difficult to preserve efficiency, the author says, there is a little room for law—economic regulation is a better fit. This book is a springboard to further investigate how a simple antitrust enforcement tool, having turned competition law into an economic regulation policy, can drive our economy, leading both the antitrust and regulatory interventions in tackling today's market challenges.

This book examines the European Commission's dawn raid practices in competition cases from a fundamental rights perspective. In recent years, the Commission has adopted a new and more aggressive enforcement policy, amid a growing awareness that cartels and abuse of market power represent an economic harm and need to be punished. In response, enforcement has been strengthened by the grant of more wide-reaching powers to competition authorities. But how does this impact on the framework of fundamental rights? This study seeks to answer that question by examining the obligations imposed by the Charter and the ECHR and the response of the Luxembourg and Strasbourg Courts. It shows that where the Strasbourg Court has managed to strike a balance between efficiency concerns and the rights of undertakings, the EU courts'judicial control is not equally balanced. This book is an essential and timely examination of this important question.

This book was originally published by Claeys and Casteels, now formally part of Edward Elgar Publishing. This book focuses on the EU ETS, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, backbone of the European Union strategy to combat climate change, and its industry competitiveness implications. In the light of the discussion of the revision for the coming years, it aims to provide a toolbox of key elements to understand its functioning and to reflect on crucial improvements.

Der europäische Bundesstaat, Leitbild Walter Hallsteins, gilt heute nicht mehr als Option für die Zukunft der Europäischen Union. Die EU kann dennoch als quasi-föderales Gebilde betrachtet werden, so dass sich die, aus Bundesstaaten bekannte, Idee des Wettbewerbsföderalismus auf die EU übertragen lässt.Der Sammelband greift Rechtsgebiete auf, für die sich die Frage nach den Folgen eines Systemwettbewerbs mit besonderer Dringlichkeit stellt. Die Beiträge wenden sich dem Steuerwettbewerb, dem Wettbewerb der Privatrechtsordnungen, den Befürchtungen eines race to the bottom im Arbeitsrecht sowie dem Phänomen unterschiedlicher, nach Qualifikation abgestufter Freizügigkeitsrechte zu.Der Band will einen Beitrag zu der Diskussion darüber leisten, ob der Wettbewerb der Systeme für Europa ein taugliches normatives Leitbild darstellt, oder ob es sich nicht vielmehr um Folgen einer freiheitsbasierten Integration handelt, die durch gemeinsame europäische Rechtsetzung eingefangen werden müssten.Mit Beiträgen vonDr. Anuscheh Farahat, LL.M. (Berkeley), Prof. Dr. Stefan Kadelbach, LL.M. (Virginia), Prof. Dr. Felix Maultzsch, LL.M. (NYU), Prof. Dr. Ekkehart Reimer, Prof. Dr. Bernd Waas

Ziel der Arbeit ist die Analyse der aktuellen Wettbewerbsorientierung der EU, deren Auswirkungen auf die Implementierung einschlägiger politischer Maßnahmen im Binnenmarkt und die Entwicklung eines neuen wettbewerbsorientierten Ansatzes auf der Grundlage von den identifizierten Problemlagen. Damit gibt die Arbeit nicht nur einen vertieften Einblick in die Entwicklung und den aktuellen Stand von wirtschaftsfördernden Politiken auf EU-Ebene (Industriepolitik, Kohäsionspolitik und Beihilfenpolitik), sondern erfasst auch die Zusammenwirkung der Bereiche sowie die sich daraus ergebenden Widersprüche aus theoretischer und empirischer Sicht. Hiermit wird erörtert, welche Faktoren in der Gestaltung und Implementierung der wirtschaftsfördernden Politiken der EU einer effektiven und vertragskonformen Zielverfolgung im Wege stehen. Der empirische Teil der Analyse erfasst dabei die regionale Ebene, um die Ergebnisse besonders greifbar und relevant für die politische Entscheidungsebene zu machen.

This book scrutinizes legislative novelties and case law in the area of EU competition and state aid rules, focusing on the interaction between public and private enforcement of those rules. It is intended for scholars, stakeholders and anyone involved in the process of law enforcement – judges, attorneys at law, corporate lawyers and market participants. The book features contributions by prominent competition law scholars offering an academic analysis of the topics covered, and by several EU General Court judges, including its President, Mr. Marc Jaeger, providing first-hand information on the application of the EU competition rules in the General Court.

This book was originally published by Claeys and Casteels, now formally part of Edward Elgar Publishing. This volume, introduced by EU Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias CAÑETE, brings together commentary and analysis by some of the leading Commission officials, lawyers and industry figures on all of these issues, offering a comprehensive overview of the challenges faced by the EU, its response, and the future direction of EU gas policy.

EU competition law plays a central role in the process of European integration both as a multifaceted tool for creating and policing the internal market as well as in organising national markets. Yet as a consequence of this role it is also subject to increasingly complex demands, a proliferation of (sectoral) regimes, and multiple objectives at both an EU and national level. This profligacy entails risks of fragmentation and divergence - which could jeopardise the proper functioning of the internal market. In this examination of EU competition law, Wolf Sauter discusses three main issues: (i) what degree of coherence exists in EU competition law; (ii) how this coherence can be explained, particularly in the broader context of integration by EU law; and (iii) how it contributes to the legitimacy and effectiveness of EU competition law. Specific focus is placed on antitrust, while mergers, state aid control, as well as the sectoral regimes for energy and electronic communications are also examined. In addition the book also charts the history and framework of these competition regimes that jointly constitute EU competition law, defining both its objectives and limitations.

Environmental Integration in Competition and Free-Movement Laws engages in a comprehensive analysis of the obligation of Article 11 TFEU (integration of environmental protection requirements) in the three core areas of EU internal market law: competition, state aid, and free movement. It develops a theoretical framework for integrating environmental and other policies and compares how environmental integration takes place within competition, state aid, and free movement law. In turn, it paves a way for a more transparent and consistent integration of environment protection in these three core areas of law. Structured in three parts, this volume (I) offers a detailed analysis of the historical development of environmental integration including discussions of the various intergovernmental conferences which led to a number of Treaty changes, shaping the obligation itself. (II) It investigates which provisions and concepts within competition law, state aid law, and the market freedoms can be interpreted in order to provide a clear demarcation of environmental protection and these areas of law. (III) It analyses how competition, state aid, and free movement law allow for a balancing of the environment against restrictions in cases of conflict.

Das europäische Kartellverbot gilt grundsätzlich umfassend, d.h. auch für das Arbeitsrecht. Arbeitsrechtliche Kollektivvereinbarungen (Tarifverträge, Betriebsvereinbarungen etc.) stehen daher in einem latenten Konflikt mit dem Kartellverbot des Art. 101 AEUV. Zur Auflösung des Konflikts hat der EuGH die sogenannte Albany-Ausnahme entwickelt. Erfüllt eine Vereinbarung ihre Voraussetzungen, ist sie vom Anwendungsbereich des Art. 101 Abs. 1 AEUV ausgenommen. Während der EuGH bereits mehrfach mit der Anwendbarkeit der Albany-Ausnahme auf tarifvertragliche Vereinbarungen befasst war, ist ihre Anwendbarkeit auf Betriebsvereinbarungen weiter ungeklärt und bislang wenig erforscht. Der Autor untersucht daher vertiefend die Anwendbarkeit der Albany-Ausnahme auf Betriebsvereinbarungen im Sinne des BetrVG.

The quality of financial integration is one of Europe's principal concerns in the aftermath of the great crisis. The lack of risk sharing lies at the heart of the financial instability produced by the rapid retrenchment of capital flows within national boundaries. The limited cross-border banking and capital markets activity is unable to provide investors with the necessary risk diversification to allow economies to withstand asymmetric shocks. This book builds on a year-long discussion with a group of academics, policy-makers and industry experts to provide a long-term contribution to the Capital Markets Union project, launched by the European Commission in 2015. It identifies 36 cross-border barriers to capital markets integration and provides an organic plan, consisting of 33 policy recommendations, to relaunch EU financial integration. These aim to improve the key components of cross-border capital market transactions: price discovery, execution and enforcement. It also provides a comprehensive overview of the current structure and the state of integration of Europe's capital markets.

If an EU industrial policy can be said to exist, its contours may be found in the complex and evolving concept of State aid. Because approaching any State aid issue can be fraught with multiple and sometimes conflicting interpretations, an in-depth analysis of the rationales, initiatives, and regulations that constitute the State aid system is much needed. In response to this need, this book provides a fine-grained clarifying context through which recent reforms, policy shifts, and judicial decisions concerning State aid can be understood and applied to specific situations. Focusing on the impacts of landmark cases and policy developments leading up to a deeply informed critique of the current State Aid Modernisation Programme, the authors cover such issues and topics as the following: – linkages to other established and evolving EU common policies and common strategies; – effect of EU State aid rules in the expanding geopolitical regions of EU influence; – interaction with the WTO Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement; – the problem of a ‘subsidies culture'; – how the European Commission's notion of ‘bad'State aid has evolved; – effect of EU policy imperatives (e.g., environmental goals) which implicitly argue for increased subsidisation; – nexus with EU tax harmonisation; – competition among undertakings versus competition among Member State policies; and – nature of the quasi-devolution of regulatory responsibilities to EU Member States. This book is a crucially important source of both theoretical enlightenment and practical wisdom that will greatly enhance confident progress through any legal matter involving EU State aid rules. It will prove of immeasurable value to practitioners, in-house counsel, policymakers, and academics for many years to come.

The objective of this book is twofold. First, it presents the economics of minority shareholdings, under both merger and antitrust law. In particular, economic analysis provides both an overall assessment of minority shareholdings in the context of concentrations, and Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and the examination of the link between non-controlling minority shareholdings, merger control and antitrust law. Second, the book also provides a legal assessment and an analysis of selected case law. According to settled European case law, minority shareholdings are analysed not only under Regulation 139/2004, but also under Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. Nevertheless, according to current enforcement practice at European and international levels, several national competition authorities have adopted different approaches. The million dollar question is whether the existing regulatory framework is sufficient to cover all possible cases.In summary, the book will be a useful tool for students, practitioners, researchers, economic and legal experts and competition authorities. It provides a comprehensive survey of the subject, which has been missing until now and answers many questions that have been raised in the literature in the last decades.

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.

The new edition of this highly acclaimed book gives a comprehensive update and analysis of European law as it affects competition in EU energy markets. It incorporates the numerous changes since the 2011 edition, including an entirely reworked section on anti-competitive agreements and practices, an update of all new merger decisions, as well as abuse of dominance. Furthermore, the book offers a detailed update and explanation of the major developments on state aid, with the publication of new Guidelines applicable inter alia to renewable energy support schemes, introducing major reform and key decisions, such as the one on the UK Hinkley Point nuclear reactor. [Subject: EU Law, Energy Law, Competition Law]

Almost two decades after the arrival of the ‘more economics based approach'to EU competition law, this economic school of thought, the European School, has been properly defined and is now in general used among competition law practitioners and their government counterparts. This genuine European economic approach, studied by Doris Hildebrand since the first edition of this now-classic work, implements the European cornerstones of the social market economy concept such as freedom of contract, social fairness, and the equality principle. Now, in the book's revised and updated fourth edition, the author explores the full spectrum of this development in detail, uncovering its multiple rationales as it has gradually formulated the legal principles of ‘competition economics'that have come to underlie all matters related to Article 101 (1), Article 101 (3), Article 102, the Merger Regulation, and the State Aid provisions. As in previous editions, the book's interdisciplinary approach integrates law and economics in such a way that economics in competition proceedings becomes easier to understand for lawyers not trained in economic theory or economic school of thoughts. It offers an in-depth description of ‘European School'theories and applications, particularly with respect to vertical and horizontal agreements. In addition, the book provides solid guidance on the definition of the relevant antitrust markets, with a detailed description of the hypothetical monopolist test. Among the fundamental elements discussed are the following: - application of economics in the competition test as developed by the EU Courts; - concrete economic analysis companies need to perform in order to qualify for an exemption; - test procedures to assess whether a certain behaviour constitutes an abuse under Article 102; - various methodologies to define markets; - contrasting the European and Chicago schools; - practical implementation of the EU social market economy objective in EU competition law; - use of evidence in market definition practice; - State Aid provisions; and - empirical techniques used to evaluate a merger. All significant cases contributory to the development of European competition economics are discussed and analysed in detail. A new first chapter on ‘The Frame'clearly demonstrates all the ways in which EU competition policy represents an essential foundation of the EU. Moreover ‘The Frame'elaborates that the social market economy objective as defined in the Lisbon Treaty is from the economic perspective the appropriate benchmark in any EU competition law assessment. This benchmark requires a holistic approach by taking into account ‘utilities'of EU citizens instead of focusing on price elements only. This new updated and revised edition has been anticipated, and will be widely welcomed. Competition lawyers, corporate in-house counsel, competition authorities, and courts will appreciate the book's clear, understandable discussion of the relevant European competition theory, authoritative guidance on the application of economic analysis, and practical insight in dealing with these subjects in real-world cases.

In the global financial crisis, competitiveness gaps between Euro area countries caused additional strain. This book discusses the various dimensions of competitiveness, with a special focus on emerging Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries. For Europe to proceed with convergence and to resist global competitive pressures, it argues that policies to boost productivity and innovation are vital. With products becoming ever more technically sophisticated and global interconnectedness on a relentless rise, it also demonstrates that quality, customer orientation and participation in global production networks and global value chains are at least as important as relative costs and prices. This book delves into the literature and dissects the complexity of competitiveness, aiming to offer tangible policy advice focussed on how well the European economy is performing and how it could improve. The key findings of the book, from a mix of academics and policymakers, constitute a state-of-the-art assessment of competitiveness that may change traditional perceptions of how economies can return to a path of sustainable growth. Comprehensive and forward-looking, this enlightening book will appeal to academics, researchers and policymakers with a particular interest in European economies and economic integration.Contributors include: D. Andrews, B.B. Bakker, I. Begg, M. Belka, K. Benkovskis, Z. Darvas, A. de Serres, M. Gradzewicz, D. Hanzl-Weiss, B.S. Javorcik, A. Kosior, K. Krogulski, M. Landesmann, E. Nowotny, B. Pinto, D. Ritzberger Grünwald, M. Rubaszek, P. Samecki, M. Silgoner, P. Sinclair, K. Vondra, B. Vujcic, J. Wörz, L. Yueh

This book investigates the crucial EU policy of competition, which is enforced by the Commission and by national agencies that enjoy various degrees of autonomy from their governments. More and more policy-making activities are nowadays delegated to agencies that cannot be held accountable to parliaments, and ultimately to voters. The author explains why this is the case in the field of EU competition policy and discusses whether independence is linked to improved enforcement – as theories of delegation and common wisdom would suggest. These questions are explored with an in-depth analysis covering 27 EU countries for 17 years (1993–2009). While the results show that independence is given when countries lack credibility and good reputation, they also point out that autonomy from governments can hardly be associated with improved regulatory output. So, is independence of competition authorities useful to society in the end? This book will appeal to upper-level students and scholars interested in competition policy, regulatory agencies, and European public policy.

How has the evolution and transformation of the Common Market affected the legal concept of State aid? How has State aid adapted to the development of the European Union? These questions and more are answered in Juan Jorge Piernas López's examination of the historical, political, constitutional, and economical events that have affected the development of State aid in the EU. Examining three key, interwoven arguments, this book provides a richer understanding of current formulas which depict the concept of aid through the prism of policy and enforcement considerations. First, the book demonstrates that the concept of aid is a'living instrument'that has been applied in accordance with the main policy priorities of the European Commission. Second, contrary to what has been affirmed in other literature, the evolution of this concept has been influenced by the broader advancement of the case law of the Court of Justice in different periods of the integration process. Third, the author contends that the study of the evolution of the concept of aid in light of policy and case law provides a holistic outlook valuable to the decision making process of difficult cases. In this regard, the book provides criteria to interpret and discuss cases including Sloman Neptun, Philip Morris, and Azores, beyond the analysis traditionally adopted in this field.

The trend of retail concentration across the European Union has raised concerns on the buyer power that retailers may have in the relation with their suppliers. Following calls that the changing nature of competition demands a change in EU competition policy, this book investigates whether there is a'gap'in current EU competition law concerning the potential harmful effects of buyer power from an economic efficiency perspective. Using a Law and Economics approach, the book identifies the potential concerns and assesses whether they can be addressed under the existing rules. While some critical comments are in place with regard to the consumer welfare standard that is applied, the book's analysis does not indicate that the current substantive legal framework of EU competition law is unfit to address the (potential) harmful effects of buyer power. [Subject: EU Law, Competition Law, Commercial Law, Trade Law, Law and Economics]

The Evaluation of the Impact of Natural Monopolies on the National Economy and Competitiveness provides an original approach and develops an original model for analyzing and evaluating the impact of energy market liberalization on competitiveness of Lithuania. The main scientific objective of this monograph is to develop a model for the assessment of impact of natural monopolies on competitiveness and apply this model in the energy sector. It is the hope of the author to define the best measures for mitigating negative impacts of monopolies in the energy sector. The structure of the monograph is determined by its objectives and consists of four chapters. Chapter One is dedicated to setting the theoretical background and explain the relationship between natural monopolies and countries'competitiveness, analyzing concept, features of natural monopolies and reasons for their regulation, as well as its relation to economic subjects in the country. Chapter Two presents the broad review of the Lithuanian energy sector and natural monopolies in electricity, natural gas and district heat sectors; it discusses their liberalization processes and stages of market opening. Chapter Three analyses and systematizes results of studies dealing with the impacts of the energy market opening on energy prices and competiveness. Chapter Four presents the model for multi-criteria assessments of the impact of energy market liberalization on competitiveness of Lithuania and its empirical testing on the Lithuanian power sector.