We Welcome This Competitor in the Competition Policy Media World – the ECN Brief

Dear Reader,
This is the first edition of the European Competition
Network (ECN) Brief. The ECN is a network of the Member
States’ national competition authorities (NCAs) and the
Commission (DG Competition). The network operates on
the basis of Council Regulation 1/2003 which created
enhanced cooperation mechanisms between the NCAs and
the Commission for the enforcement of the EU competition
rules on anti-competitive agreements and abuses of
dominant positions.

This Brief – which is intended to be published five times a
year – is meant to inform you about activities of the ECN
and its members. It strives to reflect the richness of
enforcement actions and advocacy by the network
members and, at the same time, to focus on news that are
of major interest to readers concerned with EU competition
law and policy throughout the EU. It complements the
extensive communications policies of the individual ECN
members which are accessible via Internet (see page 4 –
Contacts).

This first issue covers news from September 2009 to mid
January 2010. During this period, following the entry into
force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, Articles 81
and 82 EC have been renumbered as Articles 101 and 102 of
the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
respectively. In this issue, this new numbering will be used
for news items from that date.