The trend in Europe is definitely towards more convergence between the EU and national approaches to competition questions. For example, the Commission just launched a consultation on merger review, partially designed to bring conformity among authorities. So with the help of Danny Sokol, we asked some practitioners and authorities on the national side to weigh […]

Mariana Tavares, Jun 28, 2013 In 2012 a new Portuguese competition act (Law 19/2012) was enacted and entered into force introducing changes both to the substantive and procedural aspects of the competition regime in Portugal. The reform took into account the knowledge acquired during the nine years of enforcement of the former competition law (Law […]

Andreas Bardong, Jun 28, 2013 The mantra of international merger control has been cooperation, convergence, and comity. Within the European Union, coherence is another widely accepted objective. Taking stock of the situation in the European Union the results are very positive: The level of coherence between the practices of the EU Commission and national competition […]

Liza Bellulo, Jun 28, 2013 The Autorité de la concurrence has been entrusted with an advisory role for 26 years, but since 2008 this function has benefitted from the revamping of competition regulation and from the introduction of a constitutional requirement to carry out regulatory impact assessments, which led to the publication in July 2012 […]

Alessandra Tonazzi, Jun 28, 2013 In a general report issued at the beginning of October 2012, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) proposed to introduce some changes to the national competition rules in order to enhance their effectiveness. Some of the proposals aimed at aligning the national merger review rules to the European merger review system. […]

Francesco Russo, Claudio Tesauro, Jun 28, 2013 Competition law enforcement in the European Union is based on a system of parallel competences in which the European Commission and the national competition authorities of the Member States can apply Article 101 (prohibiting anticompetitive agreements) and 102 (prohibiting abuses of dominant position) of the Treaty on the […]

Pedro Callol, Jun 28, 2013 Article 21 of EC Regulation 139/2004, on the control of concentrations between undertakings (“ECMR”) is a provision which application appears to be relatively dormant in the last few years. Yet, it is not devoid of force and, in fact, we may see a reawakening of its application if the economic […]