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Spanish Abstract: El derecho de la competencia, al que los norteamericanos llaman derecho antimonopolistico (en ingles Antitrust Law), puede describirse como el conjunto de normas juridicas que pretenden regular el poder actual o potencial de las empresas sobre un determinado mercado, en aras del interes publico. En la practica el derecho de la competencia prohibe la realizacion de practicas restrictivas de la competencia, la adquisicion de una posicion de dominio en el mercado a traves de la realizacion de dichas practicas y el abuso de la posicion dominante. El presente documento contiene una aproximacion al analisis de una de las premisas fundamentales de esta disciplina, segun la cual, los mercados en competencia producen mayores beneficios a la sociedad que los mercados con estructuras monopolicas. Para el efecto, analizaremos los origenes, evolucion y finalidad del derecho de la competencia, las dificultades practicas que deben enfrentar las autoridades de la competencia especificamente las latinoamericanas y tambien las criticas que se han formulado en contra de las normas que desarrollan el derecho de la competencia. Para tal efecto se exponen los siguientes temas: 1) Origenes y evolucion del derecho de la competencia en Estados Unidos de America, la Union Europea, America Latina y el Caribe. 2) Aspectos economicos del derecho de la competencia. 3) Los mercados competitivos y los mercados monopolicos. 4) Criticas al derecho de la competencia. 5) Los retos para las autoridades de la competencia latinoamericanas.English Abstract: Antitrust law can be described as the set of legal rules that regulate the current or potential power of the companies on a certain market, on behalf of public interest. In practice, antitrust law prohibits the execution of restrictive competition practices, the acquisition of a dominant position in the market through the accomplishment of these practices and the abuse of the dominant position.This document is an approach to the analysis of one of the fundamental premises of this discipline, which states that the markets in competition produce greater benefits to society than the markets with monopolistic structures. In this order, we will analyze the origins, evolution and purpose of the Antitrust Law, the practical difficulties that the competition authorities must face particularly the Latin American authorities, and also the criticisms that have been formulated against the laws that develop Antitrust. For this is purpose the following subjects are exposed: 1) Origins and evolution of the Antitrust Law in the United States of America, the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean. 2) Economic Aspects of the Antitrust Law. 3) Competitive markets and monopolistic markets. 4) Criticisms to the Antitrust Law. 5) The challenges for the Latin American competition authorities.

Current living conditions of Colombian smallholders and the bottlenecks that restrain agriculture’s progress justify the exploration and implementation of public policies aimed at rural development. This dissertation focuses on rural development through smallholders’ agricultural cooperatives. Its main objective is to determine whether the main socio-economic conditions that allow these organizations to successfully develop are currently met in Colombia and to formulate policy implications on how the State may contribute to them. The dissertation argues that the conditions that facilitate the development of agricultural cooperatives are not adequately achieved in Colombia. Furthermore, it suggests that the State and other external agents may have a role to play in advancing these conditions. In short, it proposes the formulation of policies that allow the State to exert a facilitating role that aims to “midwife” the formation of self-reliant grassroots organizations. This “facilitatory” role would represent a third-way between two previous approaches that have failed in Colombia: the “top-down” interventions on farmer enterprises devised by the State in the 1960s and 1970s and the “hands-off” approach that was indifferent toward the development of smallholder organizations in the 1990s and 2000s.

The purpose of this document is to assess two questions that have a positive and normative nature respectively: 1) What incentives does the legal and institutional framework of the European Community (EC) and the United States (Federal level) provide to the different agents involved in antitrust proceedings in regards to the use of expert economic testimonies? 2) What legal and social norms could provide appropriate incentives to the different agents involved in antitrust proceedings in order to align the use of expert economic testimonies with antitrust enforcement goals? The research questions are assessed from a comparative law and economics approach. The law and economics approach is based upon the Asymmetric Information Theory and Principal-Agent Theory. The document contains five conclusions that may be summarized in the following statement: regarding expert economic testimonies, an antitrust enforcement system must aim at the minimization of its costs through the mitigation of the consequences of asymmetric information between the adjudicator and the expert. A cost-benefit analysis of the use of expert witnesses must take into account the incentives produced by the interaction among the different regulatory and non-regulatory features of the antitrust enforcement system.

The predominance of oligopolies in Latin American (Latam) markets poses an important challenge for competition authorities (CAs). In the first place, CAs must enforce competition laws in markets where it is difficult to distinguish between conducts originated on collusive agreements among competitors from the behavior of interdependent firms that take unilateral decisions to adapt to the conditions of the market or anticipate their competitors’ decisions.In the second place, price-fixing cases based on circumstantial economic evidence are very complex and the proceedings are costly to carry out. The latter implies high administrative costs of enforcement and risks of enforcement errors, either by sanctioning legitimate oligopolistic behavior (false positives) or by failing to detect true anticompetitive practices (false negatives).The objective of this document is to present a thorough account of the cases adjudicated in five Latam’s jurisdictions in the period 1985-2008, analyze the evolution of the case law, and compare and contrast the rules and their enforcement under the spectrum of economic theory and the rules applied by other jurisdictions, such as the US (federal level) and the EU.

Spanish Abstract: La normas sobre control de concentraciones en la nueva Ley de Competencia Colombiana (Ley 1340) fue demandadas por inconstitucionalidad en el ano 2009. La Corte Constitucional inicio un proceso de revision constitucional de la ley y el CEDEC participo en el proceso judicial mediante un escrito de intervencion ciudadana. El escrito de intervencion apoya la constitucionalidad de las normas excepto por el articulo 22 que impone una contribucion de seguimiento en favor de la autoridad de competencia en los casos en los cuales la concentracion es condicionada. El escrito incluye una seccion que presenta una breve estudio comparado sobre las leyes de control de concentraciones.English Abstract: The constitutionality of the rules on merger control contained in the new Colombian Competition Law (Law 1340) was challenged in 2009. The Constitutional Court initiated a judicial review of the law and the CEDEC participated in the constitutional process by submitting an Amicus Curiae Brief. The Amicus Brief supports the constitutionality of the merger control rules but for article 22 of the law that established a mandatory contribution in favor of the competition authority in cases where remedies were imposed. The Brief includes a section that presents a brief comparative law study on merger control laws.

Antitrust Law can be described as the set of legal rules that regulate the current or potential power of the companies on a certain market, on behalf of public interest. In practice, the Antitrust Law prohibits the execution of restrictive competition practices, the acquisition of a dominant position in the market through the accomplishment of these practices and the abuse of the dominant position. This document is an approach to the analysis of one of the fundamental premises of this discipline, which states that the markets in competition produce greater benefits to society than the markets with monopolistic structures. In this order, we will analyze the origins, evolution and purpose of the Antitrust Law, the practical difficulties that the competition authorities must face 'particularly the Latin American authorities', and also the criticisms that have been formulated against the laws that develop Antitrust. For this is purpose the following subjects are exposed: 1) Origins and evolution of the Antitrust Law in the United States of America, the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean. 2) Economic Aspects of the Antitrust Law 3) Competitive markets and monopolistic markets. 4) Criticisms to the Antitrust Law 5) The challenges for the Latin American competition authorities.

Spanish Abstract: Historicamente el transporte aereo de pasajeros se ha caracterizado por ser una actividad economica sujeta a una pesada regulacion estatal. En efecto, durante las primeras seis decadas de su prestacion en la mayorIa de los paises desarrollados los gobiernos aplicaron una estricta regulacion en todos los aspectos de la prestacion de servicio, una fuerte politica de subsidios y diferentes barreras de entrada de origen legal que restringian la competencia en el mercado. No obstante, a partir de los anos setentas el gobierno de Estados Unidos opto por desregular el mercado, liberalizando las tarifas y permitiendo al mercado actuar con mayor flexibilidad. La desregulacion le dio un papel importante al derecho de la competencia en relacion a la promocion y preservacion de la competencia en dicho mercado.En Colombia, la evolucion de la regulacion del sector aeronautico ha seguido una tendencia similar. Desde el ano 1992 hasta la expedicion de la Resolucion No. 3299 de 2007, la intervencion de la Unidad Administrativa Especial de Aeronautica Civil (AEROCIVIL) en las tarifas aeronauticas consistia en su aprobacion para cada ruta bajo franjas maximas y minimas de precios. La expedicion de la Resolucion No. 3299 de 2007 de la AEROCIVIL, que libero las tarifas nacionales e internacionales del transporte aereo regular de pasajeros tuvo como efecto inmediato el incremento de la competencia, lo cual se reflejo en la baja sustancial de las tarifas y en la entrada de nuevas aerolineas.Teniendo en cuenta el anterior contexto, el proposito de este documento es hacer una presentacion detallada del regimen especial de libre competencia del sector aeronautico en Colombia. El documento expone las facultades de la AEROCIVIL como autoridad de la competencia para el sector aeronautico y analiza las politicas comerciales de las aerolieas y las agencias de viaje.English Abstract: Historically, the airline industry has been characterized by the heavy regulation established by the State. In effect, during the first six decades of the existence of these services in most of the developed countries, the governments applied a strict regulation in all the aspects of the service, a strong policy of subsidies and different entry barriers of legal origin that restricted the competition in the market. However, in the seventies the government of the United States deregulated the market, liberalizing the tariffs and allowing the market to work with more flexibility. Deregulation gave antitrust law and important role in regards to the promotion and preservation of competition in the market.In Colombia the evolution of the regulation of the airline industry has followed a similar tendency. Since the year 1992 until the issuance of the Resolution 3299 of 2007, the intervention of the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics (AEROCIVIL) over the aeronautic tariffs consisted on their approval for each route on a maximum-minimum price basis. The issuance of the Resolution 3299 of 2007 by the AEROCIVIL, that liberated the national and international tariffs of the regular air transport of passengers had an immediate effect of increasing the competition, reflected on the substantial decrease of tariffs and the entrance of new firms.Taking into account this context, the purpose of the paper is to present in detail the special competition regime in the Colombian aeronautical sector. The document explains the faculties of the as the competition authority of the aeronautics sector and analyzes the commercial policies of airlines and travel agencies.

This amicus brief was submitted on behalf of the Centro de Estudios de Derecho de la Competencia (CEDEC) in support of the articles of the Colombian competition law that allow the termination of an investigation through the offering of compromises. The Colombian Constitutional Court will be considering the question whether article 4 (numeral 12) and article 52 of the Decree 2153 of 1992 are unconstitutional. The brief describes the termination of proceedings through the acceptance of compromises in several jurisdictions, distinguishes the institution from leniency programs and argues for its constitutionality in the light of the Colombian 1991 Constitution.

The objective of the document, written in Spanish, is to present the current competition laws in Latin America and Caribbean. Recent reforms and bills that are discussed by several Congresses of the region are also referenced. The legal background of competition laws in Latin America and Caribbean is divided in three periods of time, taking into account their issuance and effective enforcement. Due to a detailed reference to the web pages of the competition authorities, this document constitutes a guide for a first hand approach to competition law in seventeen countries of Latin America and Caribbean; likewise, the references to the legislative's web pages permit the monitoring of the amendments or the new bills that are discussed in the each national congress.

The reputation of a firm in the market is identified by the customers through symbols that convey information about the quality of the products, such as trade names, trade marks and other trade symbols. Companies invest important resources to build a good reputation regarding its products and services; hence, the strength, significance and recognition of trade marks, trade names and corporate names are important assets for a firm in any market. The objective of this document is to explain the protection of trade symbols in the Colombian legislation and case-law. The document focuses on the protection of trade names, corporate names and the names of commercial premises and the prohibition - by the Unfair Competition Law - of two specific unfair competition types: likelihood of confusion and profit from another's reputation.

Competition policies were established in Panama, for the first time, through the enactment of the Law 29 of 1996 that constitutes their general consumer protection and competition regime. After the enactment of the Law 29 there has been an important regulatory development and issuance of Guidelines that instruct the citizens regarding the compliance of the competition rules. This document, written in Spanish, presents the structure of the competition regime in Panama and the content of the recent reforms, especially the Decree Law No. 9 of 2006, current since May 2 of 2006. Additionally, the features of the enforcement of the statutes are explained in the context of the performance of the antitrust authorities.

Merger review is one of the most important aspects of Competition Law. This tool allows competition authorities (when the review is ex ante as in the Colombian case) to hinder the transactions that unduly restrict competition or authorize them under certain conditions - through merger remedies - which guarantees the preservation of free competition in the markets. The purpose of this document is to present the Colombian merger control regime, determine its nature, its structure, identify the different doctrinal positions adopted by the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce and its evolution in the last years.