Competition law

Question 1

What EU competition law does in order to safeguard free competition?

Answer 1

1. Prohibits agreements between companies which restrict competition (art.101 TFEU)
2. Prohibits abuses of dominance (art.102 TFEU)
3. Imposes merger control
4. Imposes a state aid control system
5. EU competition law constraints and complements but does not generally replace national competition law

Question 2

What are indicators of dominance?

Answer 2

1. High market shares (>40% = presumption of dominance)
2. Low market shares of competitors
3. Financial capacities
4. Vertical integration
5. Barriers for market entry

Question 3

What are the HBER and the Horizontal Guidelines?

Answer 3

They are measures assisting in the enforcement of compliance with Article 101 of the Treaty. The intervention forms a common framework of assessment of horizontal cooperation agreements for companies, the Commision, NCAs and national courts in order to ensure that companies operating across EU benefit from a level playing field

Question 4

Types of HBER?

Answer 4

1. Individual exemptions
2. Block exemptions
   a) Research and development BER
   b) Specialisation BER
   Applies to:
   1) Unilateral specialisation agreement (form of outsourcing, where a company partially cease manufacturing certain products and to purchase it from another party, who agreed to produce them)
   2) Reciprocal sp.agreement (same as unilateral except both companies cease and produce certain products)
   3) Joint production agreements
   Exemptions applies if market share doesn’t exceed 20% on any relevant market

Question 5

What are the block exemptions?

Answer 5

Certain types of agreements that are beneficial for competition or are allowed due to their nature

Question 6

What are 4 conditions that an undertakings’ agreement has to fulfil to be considered an exemption?

Answer 6

1. Improve production/distribution/economic progress/ technical process
2. Consumers must receive “fair share” of the benefit
3. Restrictions must be the minimum needed
4. Does not eliminate a substantial part of competition

Question 7

What is function of Specialisation BER?

Answer 7

It is generally considered to improve the production process, which should strength small and medium sized firms

Question 8

What’s EU leniency programme?

Answer 8

It’s a cartel investigation tool within the EU’s system of administrative sanctions of antitrust offenses

Question 9

What are 2 major developments that present a challenge in application and interpretation of the HBERs and the Horizontal guidelines?
Any other market developments that present a challenge?

Answer 9

1. The digitalization of the economy and the increasing dependence on Big Data

Competitiveness depends on data access, platforms and ecosystems took an important role between suppliers and consumers and etc.

2. The need to ensure sustainability development

The European Green Deal gave a new incentive to companies to pursue sustainability initiatives.

Others:

1. Globalization (increasing competitive pressure)
2. Market concentration (meaning a limited number of companies, it is forecasted to increase in the future)
3. Standard essential patents (smooth licensing environment is essential for success)
4. Competition law enforcement ( number of antitrust cases and infringement decision should increase competition law enforcement)

Question 10

What is collusion?

Answer 10

Any form of coordination or agreement among competing firms with the objective of raising welfare of participants or reduce their loses.

Question 11

What are the 2 types of a collusion?

Answer 11

Explicit collusion - explicit agreements, agreement on prices/production and etc., direct interactions

Tacit collusion - coordination without explicit agreement, maintained by recognizing mutual interdependence.