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Recent years have seen a major growth in the European law concerning the operation of the energy industry, especially with respect to electricity and gas. Several directives have been adopted that are aimed at the promotion of competition in this key sector of the European economy. At thesame time, the jurisprudence of the European Court had developed further on matters such as access to networks, import and export monopolies and security of supply.In this book the authors examine the principal legislation, Treaty provisions and decisions of the Court of Justice and Court of First Instance of the EU as they related to the promotion of competition in European energy markets. In particular, two chapters are devoted to a detailed analysis of theprovisions of the two directives that set out common rules for the creation of an internal market in the electricity and gas sectors. In each case, the analysis is set in the context of the various programmes of energy market liberalization and privatization in the Member States, which aresummarized in this book. However, the authors also take the wider pan-European context into account, explaining the requirements and the implications of the European Economic Area Agreement, the Energy Charter Treaty and the Europe Agreements with countries of Central and Eastern Europe.The approach adopted by the authors is both analytical and historical. They locate the legislation in the context of the EU Internal Market programme that began in the late 1980s and explain the roles played by the various parties (energy industries, consumers and EU institutions) in shaping thefinal legislation. Importantly, they explain how the framework character of the energy directives has led to further important rule-making in the implementation of the directives across the EU. They conclude that a co-ordinated response between the European Commission and the national regulatorswill be essential to resolve problems arising in the transition to a competitive energy market in the EU.
This book brings satisfying definition and clarity to this field at last. Exploring the substantive differences between competition law and sector-specific regulation after the methodological integration, it presents the first detailed analysis of the many hundreds of notifications and Commission letters generated under the Article 7 procedure, identifying the most relevant cases dealing with market definition, market power, and remedies. It compares these decisions with relevant competition law cases and highlights elements with a bearing on sector-specific regulation. It also offers hugely valuable guidance through the vast amount of documents in the Commission’s CIRCA database. Topics and issues raised include the following: definition of product markets; delineation of geographic markets (including sub-national); different practices in relation to assessing single market power and collective market power; and competition problems such as refusal to deal, margin squeeze, non-price discrimination, and excessive pricing. There can be little doubt that this is the new reference point for researchers and practitioners in this domain. By systematically categorizing the concepts and legal criteria and building a solid theoretical framework on the intersection of competition law and sector-specific regulation, the author has created a resource that is sure to be welcomed by all those involved in regulation of electronic communications markets and network industries in general: academic scholars, telecommunications regulators at the EU and Member State levels, competition authorities, law firms specializing in IT/communications law, practitioners in IT and telecommunications companies, and consultants in the sector. The book will also prove very useful for scholars and practitioners in other parts of the world interested in comparing the EU system with their own.
This paper aims at highlighting the Commission's approach towards the relation between sector specific regulation and general competition law, especially concerning energy markets and the road to Internal Market objective.We firstly present Trinko case, in order to focus on two crucial and relevant to our analysis issues: essential facilities doctrine and the relation between sector regulation and competition law. Our intention is to offer a basis for comparison and counterarguments concerning EU approach towards these issues. After showing how Trinko case addressed these issues, we examine the relevant points of view of European Competition Authorities and ECJ. Concerning Essential Facilities Doctrine, we show how a similar to the American approach was established and how Commission and ECJ eventually formed a very flexible -in comparison to the American- and open to third parties, system for access to facilities. Futhermore, we note that recent regulation - Third Energy Package - tries to address this issue by sector specific rules, instead of general antitrust law. One other major conclusion is that in EU, Commission applies competition law, in order to address issues fitting to sector regulation in a possibly stricter way than sector regulation does - for example Third Energy Package offers many alternatives to full ownership unbundling, while Commission's decisions actually present it as a single option; thus Commission tries to implement a sector specific policy by competition law means and methodology and especially by commitments procedure - a procedure that allows Commission to avoid ECJ investigation. We seek the reasons that lead to this approach and we highlight the weak points of it, while we also explain why far-reaching structural remedies may not be acceptable under competition law framework. We also use facts from other markets that opened to competition before energy, such as telecommunications, in order to recognise similar approaches and their results.Finally, we conclude that the recent Commission's approach may eventually lead to a dualistic system - possibly dangerous and inefficient as well - of addressing energy market's issues; a dualistic system that will fully reveal its possibly negative consequences after the Third Energy Package comes into force.
This book provides a comprehensive examination of the interaction between Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI) and EU competition law, covering in particular Article 106 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and state aid rules. It also takes the telecommunications, postal service and transport sectors as case studies, taking into account the technological, economic and political backgrounds to these sectors. The area of SGEI has undergone fundamental developments over the past three decades and the most recent changes in the Lisbon Treaty, recognizing SGEI as a shared value and granting explicit competence to the EU, mark its constitutional significance. The key issue is how to balance economic values underlying competitive markets and non-economic public service values such as universal access to essential services. The essence of the question is the relationship between the market and the state. This controversial issue is addressed through a critical analysis of a number of landmark EU Court judgments and Commission decisions over the decades. Offering a clear appreciation of the evolution of the EU regulatory framework on SGEI that lays out the limits and boundaries within which the Member States define, organize and fund SGEI, the book is particularly aimed at academics with a research interest in the interaction between public services and EU competition law, but as it also demonstrates clearly how the application of EU competition law has transformed the public utilities sectors, it will be of interest to law makers, legal professionals and policy makers as well. Dr. Lei Zhu is a Research Associate at the Institute of International Law at Wuhan University in Wuhan, China. He studied at the Institute for Competition & Procurement Studies of the Bangor University Law School in Wales, United Kingdom, where he obtained his PhD in law in 2015.
Over the last decade, the European Union has undertaken major market-opening reforms in the area of network industries. The liberalization process has now been completed in the air transport and electronic communications sectors and has achieved considerable progress in other network industries, such as postal services, energy (electricity and gas), and rail transport. Creating competition in network industries is not an easy matter, however. Because they benefit from certain advantages such as a large initial market share and control of essential facilities, incumbents typically retain substantial market power in a number of relevant markets and may even use their position to prevent others from engineering such markets. Controlling market power is thus one of a number of key concerns in network industries. It can be achieved in two main ways; either through the adoption and implementation of sector-specific rules or through the application of competition rules. There are advantages and disadvantages to both options, but it is a combination of the two that generally prevents incumbents from abusing their market power in liberalized markets. Competition law and sector-specific regulation provide for the application of remedies on incumbents or other operators holding significant market power. Such remedies are either structural or a behavioural. In some occasions they will apply ex ante, while in others ex post. This book comprises a collection of outstanding essays dealing with the complex legal and economic issues raised by remedies in network industries. While some of these essays analyse remedies from a generic point of view, others focus on specific remedies applied specifically in particular sectors. The sectors covered in this volume include electronic communications, postal services, energy (electricity and gas), and air transport. The final paper also presents a discussion of the United States approach to remedies in network industries. The essays comprised in this book have been written by leading academics (lawyers and economists), as well as private practitioners.
This innovative study of the role of competition law in the telecommunications industry starts from a classic perspective: While, in principle, regulation benefits social welfare and efficient allocation of resources, past regulatory experience shows that regulation can be flawed and lead to welfare harm rather than good. In the telecommunications industry specifically, inappropriately designed sector-specific remedies and regulatory delays in the introduction of new telecommunications services can hold up the development of the market towards effective competition and could incur considerable welfare losses. In addition, conventional antitrust analysis still lags behind the dynamic nature of the electronic communications markets. Milena Stoyanova sets out to establish a new understanding of the role of sector-specific regulation and competition law enforcement in the electronic communications sector, addressing such questions as the following: and• Why a new regulatory framework? and• Are sectoral regulation and competition law enforcement mutually exclusive or complementary? and• Why should electronic communications markets be regulated to conform to competition law principles? and• What does competition law add to sector-specific regulation? and• What is the relationship or proportion between regulation and competition law enforcement? An overview of the telecommunications liberalization process initiated at European Community level reveals such problems as a divergent approach of national regulatory authorities in the application of one and the same norms, inability of competition authorities to rightly assess the technicalities underlying a competition problem, and difficulty in carrying out a periodical oversight of compliance with the competition law remedies. The author discusses the legal basis and rationale for the application of the essential facility doctrine to the electronic communications sector, and argues for new regulatory responses to the emergence of collective dominant firms in an oligopolistic setting and to the potential of multifirm conduct to restrict competition through price squeezing and other tactics. The book concludes with a specific case study on the harmonisation of recent Bulgarian legislation with the European Community sector-specific and competition law regimes andà propos the electronic communications sector. Effective competition in the electronic communications market is crucial for securing the dynamic role of the entire information and communications technologies sector, of which electronic communications form the largest segment. The sound and well-informed recommendations in this book ably address common and persistent problems, making Competition Problems in Liberalized Telecommunications a forward-looking mainstay for practitioners and other professionals involved in all aspects of the field.
How does EU internal market law, in particular the rules on free movement and competition, apply to private regulation? What issues arise if a bar association were to regulate advertising; when a voluntary product standard impedes trade; or when a sporting body restricts the cross-border transfer of a football player? Covering the EU's free movement and competition rules from a general and sector-specific angle, focusing specifically on the legal profession, standard-setting, and sports, this book is the first systematic study of EU economic law in areas where private regulation is both important and legally controversial. Mislav Mataija discusses how the interpretation of both free movement and competition rule adapts to the rise of private regulation, and examines the diminishing relevance of the public/private distinction. As private regulators take on increasingly important tasks, the legal scrutiny over their measures becomes broader and moves towards what Mataija describes as 'regulatory autonomy.' This approach broadly disciplines, but also recognizes the legitimacy of private regulators; granting them an explicit margin of discretion and focusing on governance and process considerations rather than on their impact on trade and competition. The book also demonstrates how the application of EU internal market law fits in the context of strategic attempts by the EU institutions to negotiate substantive reforms in areas where private regulation is pervasive. Surveying recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the practice of the European Commission, Mataija demonstrates how EU internal market law is used as a control mechanism over private regulators.
Now in its eighth edition, this work is the leading authority on EU competition law. It offers a clear and comprehensive exposition of law and procedure, with exhaustive citation of judicial and legislative authorities. Fully up-to-date with major developments in substantive law and case law, this is an essential purchase for EU competition law practitioners.
This book provides the first comprehensive account of the New EU Competition Law: an emerging understanding of the discipline that breaks from the consensus of the early 2000s and that ventures into uncharted territories. Competition law has undergone fundamental transformations in the past decade, from the rise and fall of the 'effects-based approach' to the challenge of Big Tech and the growing interaction with intellectual property. Making sense of these changes and fully grasping their implications can be difficult. The book discusses the shift from traditional enforcement in the industrial era to the sort of intervention that a knowledge-based economy demands. It presents the changes that the field is undergoing (policy priorities, relationship with regulation and intangible assets, move away from efficiency and consumer welfare) and illustrates them by reference to the most significant developments. The analysis includes an up-to-date evaluation of the Digital Markets Act and addresses the application of EU competition law to key areas, including energy, pharma, telecommunications and online platforms. Conceived as a 'modular' book, practitioners and advanced students will find it useful as a map to navigate the underlying trends and as an in-depth dissection of the key case law and administrative practice of the past decade.