Critically discuss how Articles 102 have been implemented in order to pursue anticompetitive practices. Illustrate your answer with relevant case law.
This essay concerns on aspects of the European Union competition law and how it pursue anticompetitive practices. Article 102 TFEI which deals with situation of abuse of a dominant position in European Union competition law. The main objective of the competition law is to enhance efficiency for example maximise consumer welfare and allocation of resources; protect consumers and smaller firms; and facilitate creation of Single European Market.
Article 102 also has pursued anti-competitive through restrict any abuse by one or more undertaking of a dominant position within the internal
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There may be legal, technical or practical reasons why a product only competes within a limited area of the EC. And lastly for the temporal market, a market may vary over time. Seasonal variation may affect production. Different relevant market would need different market share to satisfy the dominant position. For example in United Brands Company v Commission, 41-45% of banana market share would consider as dominant in the banana market. In AKZO Chemie BV v Commission, 50% market share of the organic peroxides flour additives market.
Dominance in particular market is illegal but there needs to be an abuse of that power. Article 102 has laid down some examples of abusive conduct and the two main forms of abusive conduct are exploitative abuses which the concern is that the monopolist will be in a position to maximise profits by reducing output and increasing his' price. He will exploit his customers and exclusionary abuses which the dominant undertaking adopts behaviour which would be considered legitimate if the undertaking had no market power but may cause serious concerns when a position of market domination is held. In Michelin the court held an undertaking in a dominant position has "a special responsibility not to allow its conduct to impair undistorted competition on the Common Market".
There are examples of exploitative abuse. The
Competition is prevalent in various aspects of life, including sports, school, and jobs. Everyone at some point in their lifetime will have to compete against others in order to achieve a goal or earn a prize. It’s how the world has worked for a long time; it’s survival of the fittest and this minor competition between everyone is how we have continuously gotten smarter, faster, and stronger. Competition is necessary to a certain degree, but how much is too much? It’s definitely not a bad thing, and as long as there’s a healthy amount, it can be beneficial because it fosters self-improvement, and it will push people to go all out and try their absolute best.
There are several markets where it is relatively easy to name every competitor. These are concentrated markets where only a handful of competitors
Throughout history, there have been many problems present in the American life. In the time period between the 1800s to the 1900s, there were many problems such as, poor living and working conditions and powerful monopolies. Many reforms were proposed in order to solve these problems. The grisly living and working conditions, along with overpowered monopolies, were both addressed with reforms.
Lionel Bentley and Brad Sherman have, in their book; "Intellectual Property Law” acknowledged that indeed there is tension between competition law and intellectual property law. While discussing the effect of competition law on the exploitation of copyright , they state that a copyright entitles an owner to use the property in a manner which he or she so wishes and that the copyright owner cannot be compelled to apply their rights in a particular manner. This is the exclusivity of a right. They, however, acknowledge that there are circumstances in which competition law may require a property owner to make available the right for use by the public. They state that operators in dominant positions have a special responsibility not to allow their conduct to impair
Member countries’ laws and regulations should permit authorities to suspend, to an appropriate degree, from competition for public contracts or other public advantages, including
United States antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws, which regulates the conduct and organization of business corporations, generally to promote fair competition for the benefit of consumers. The four major pieces of legislation known as the Antitrust Laws include: The Sherman Act, The Clayton Antitrust Act, The Federal Trade Commission, and the Celler-Kefauver Act.
Antitrust laws are federal and state government laws that regulate the conduct and organization or businesses. This helps promote fair competition for consumers. There are four main areas involving the
Antitrust laws are meant to protect competition in markets. They try to ensure that all individuals have an “equally opportunity in honest competition.” Early in the nation’s history, there was widespread fear of the dangers of monopolies and other restrictions on competition. In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act to prevent limits on competition caused by private parties. Thus the main goal of antitrust law is to preserve “economic freedom” and a “free-enterprise system.” Specifically, it attempts to preserve “the freedom to compete” for businesses. In a practical sense, antitrust laws are seeking to prevent burdens on competition in the marketplace.
Collectively there are four major pieces of legislation that make us the Antitrust Laws: The Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, the Federal Trade Commission act of 1914 and the Celler- Kefauver Act of 1950. The purpose of these acts and laws is to regulate trade and commerce by preventing unlawful restrictions, price fixing and monopolies; their goal is to promote competition and to encourage the production of quality goods and services at reasonable prices while safeguarding the public welfare, while ensuring consumer demand is met via the production and sale of those goods at reasonably low prices. Enforcement of the antitrust laws depends largely on two agencies: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division
The first part of this paper attempts to answer these questions whilst deliberating on the majority and minority judgements of the US Supreme Court in Leegin and the significance of the decision for US federal antitrust law. The second part of this paper compares the US Federal and EU approaches to RPM.
The purpose of antitrust laws is to both promote and protect competition. They aren’t designed to go after big companies simply because they are bigger or more successful than others in their industry. They aren’t anti-market or anti-business. They are intended to be just the opposite, in fact. They are meant to promote successful market economics through the assurance of healthy competition while keeping abuses of the system in check that could overrun the market.
Competition in economics is rivalry in supplying or acquiring an economic service or good. Sellers compete with other sellers, and buyers with other buyers. In its perfect form, there is competition among many small buyers and sellers, none of whom is too large to affect the market as a whole; in practice, competition is often reduced by a great variety of limitations, including monopolies. The monopoly, a limit on competition, is an example of market failure. Competition among merchants in foreign trade was common in ancient times, and it has been a characteristic of mercantile and industrial expansion since the Middle Ages. By the 19th century, classical economic theorists had come to regard
What is a monopoly? According to Webster's dictionary, a monopoly is "the exclusive control of a commodity or service in a given market.” Such power in the hands of a few is harmful to the public and individuals because it minimizes, if not eliminates normal competition in a given market and creates undesirable price controls. This, in turn, undermines individual enterprise and causes markets to crumble. In this paper, we will present several aspects of monopolies, including unfair competition, price control, and horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate mergers.
1. Analyze the fast food industry from the point of view of perfect competition. Include the concepts of elasticity, utility, costs, and market structure to explain the prices charged by fast food retailers.
Competitions are ubiquitous. It may be in the form of us seeking a promotion at work, company competing for bigger market share. In fact, humans more often than not ,seek to achieve a superior position relative to others in a variety of contexts (Garcia, Tor and Schiff, 2013). Simply put, an undertaking with an aim of establishing gain by hindering the competitive edge of the rival party involved. In economic sense, in a marketplace, there are buyers and sellers for a product existing at variance, which would allow the price of products to change to counter the change in supply and demand. In todays times almost every product has a substitute alternative, hence, a buyer would have the convenience of switching to the cheaper alternative if price of a product becomes unaffordable for them. Hence, the buyers have relative influence on the price of the products. However in some industries there are only a few supplier of the products and services, due to the absence of substitutes, which reduces the bargaining power of the consumers on the price of goods, due to the producers having absolute power over the pricing of the goods.