mostly EU law, but also national Austrian law https://eur-lex.europa.eu
Why Compete?
Competition Definition
“a striving for the custom and business of people in the market place” & Whish/Bailey
-
Factors:
- price
- quality
- innovation → patents, design
- reputation → trademarks
- privacy
- sustainability
-
Competition can also happen on the input side
- educated staff
- special ingredients / raw materials
- patents
Competition Types
- Perfect Competition → a lot of suppliers, no Market Entry Barriers
- Oligopoly → a few suppliers, almost no competition
- Monopoly → no competition, just one supplier
Goals of Competition Law
- again, no global competition law
- supranational competition law (EU)
- protect competitive process
- promote consumer welfare
- market integration → integrate Economies of member states to stop future wars from happening
Level of Enforcement
- economization of Antitrust → which economists to believe?
- Laissez Faire vs Strict Regime
- what would you rather?
- False positives (type 1 error) or false negatives (type 2 error)?
Public Enforcement
- official authorities
- European Commission and national competition authorities (NCAs)
- cases with relevance for the internal market
- Austria: BWB - Bundes Wettbewerbs Behoerde
- limited resources → can do only so much
Private Enforcement
-
private persons/companies
-
damage claims
-
quasi-endless resources → enough
-
EU → 90% public, 10% private
-
US → 10% public, 90% private
- damages are remedied 3-fold in US when breaking competition law
- 10 from infringing party
Legal Framework
- Kodex Competition Law 2024
- Art 101 TFEU → anti-competitive agreements
- e.g. price agreements between competitors
- e.g. tying → bundling products together with malicious intent
- Art 102 TFEU → abuse of market power
- EU Merger Control (EU Merger Regulation) 139/2004
- Art 101 TFEU → anti-competitive agreements