Competition Law and Consumer Protection


Book Description

The assumption that competition law and consumer protection are mutually reinforcing is rarely challenged. The theory seems uncontroversial. However, because a positive interaction between the two is presumed to be self-evident, the frequent conflicts that do in fact arise are often dealt with on an ad hoc basis, with no overarching legal authority. There is a clear need for a detailed and coherent understanding of exactly where the complements and tensions between the two policy areas exist. Dr Cseres in-depth analysis provides that understanding. Proceeding from the dual perspective of law and economics that is, of justice, fairness, and reasonableness on the one hand, and of efficiency of the other she fully considers such underlying issues as the following: the role of competition law and consumer law in a free market economy;the notion of consumer welfare;the effect of the modernisation of EC competition law for consumers;economics theories of information, bounded rationality, and transaction costs;the special significance of vertical agreements and merger control; and,how consumers are affected by information asymmetries. The ultimate focus of the book is on current and emerging EC law, in which a rapprochement between the two areas seems to be under way. Dr. Cseres provides a knowledgeable guide to the various strands of theory, policy, and jurisprudence that (she shows) ought to be taken into account in the process, including schools of thought and law and policy experience in both Europe and the United States. A special chapter on Hungary, where post-1989 law and practice reveal a fresh and distinctly forward-looking understanding of the matter, is one of the book's most extraordinary features. Competition Law and Consumer Protection stands alone as a committed contribution to bridging a gap in legal knowledge the significance of which grows daily. It will be of immeasurable value to a wide range of professionals from academics and researchers to officials, policymakers, and practitioners in competition law, consumer protection advocacy, economic theory and planning, business administration, and various pertinent government authorities.




Making Markets Work for Africa


Book Description

This is a book on market law and policy in sub-Saharan Africa. It shows how markets can be harnessed by poorer and developing economies to help make the markets work for them: to help them integrate into the world economy and raise the standard of living for their people while preserving their values of inclusive development. It studies particular countries and particular regions, delving deeply into the facts.




Competition Law and Development


Book Description

The vast majority of the countries in the world are developing countries—there are only thirty-four OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries—and yet there is a serious dearth of attention to developing countries in the international and comparative law scholarship, which has been preoccupied with the United States and the European Union. Competition Law and Development investigates whether or not the competition law and policy transplanted from Europe and the United States can be successfully implemented in the developing world or whether the developing-world experience suggests a need for a different analytical framework. The political and economic environment of developing countries often differs significantly from that of developed countries in ways that may have serious implications for competition law enforcement. The need to devote greater attention to developing countries is also justified by the changing global economic reality in which developing countries—especially China, India, and Brazil—have emerged as economic powerhouses. Together with Russia, the so-called BRIC countries have accounted for thirty percent of global economic growth since the term was coined in 2001. In this sense, developing countries deserve more attention not because of any justifiable differences from developed countries in competition law enforcement, either in theoretical or practical terms, but because of their sheer economic heft. This book, the second in the Global Competition Law and Economics series, provides a number of viewpoints of what competition law and policy mean both in theory and practice in a development context.




Regulation, Productivity and Growth


Book Description

In this paper, we relate the scope and depth of regulatory reforms to growth outcomes in OECD countries. By means of a new set of quantitative indicators of regulation, we show that the cross-country variation of regulatory settings has increased in recent years, despite extensive liberalisation and privatisation in the OECD area. We then look at the regulation-growth linkage using data that cover a large set of manufacturing and service industries over the past two decades. We focus on multifactor productivity (MFP), which plays a crucial role in GDP growth and accounts for a significant share of its cross-country variance. We find evidence that reforms promoting private governance and competition (where these are viable) tend to boost productivity. Both privatisation and entry liberalisation are estimated to have a positive impact on productivity. In manufacturing the gains are greater the further a given country is from the technology leader, suggesting that regulation limiting ...




The Global Limits of Competition Law


Book Description

Over the last three decades, the field of antitrust law has grown increasingly prominent, and more than one hundred countries have enacted competition law statutes. As competition law expands to jurisdictions with very different economic, social, cultural, and institutional backgrounds, the debates over its usefulness have similarly evolved. This book, the first in a new series on global competition law, critically assesses the importance of competition law, its development and modern practice, and the global limits that have emerged. This volume will be a key resource to both scholars and practitioners interested in antitrust, competition law, economics, business strategy, and administrative sciences.




Competition Law in Developing Countries


Book Description

This book brings together perspectives of development economics and law to tackle the relationship between competition law enforcement and economic development. It addresses the question of whether, and how, competition law enforcement helps to promote economic growth and development. This question is highly pertinent for developing countries largely because many developing countries have only adopted competition law in recent years: about thirty jurisdictions had in place a competition law in the early 1980s, and there are now more than 130 competition law regimes across the world, of which many are developing countries. The book proposes a customized approach to competition law enforcement for developing countries, set against the background of the academic and policy debate concerning convergence of competition law. The implicit premise of convergence is that there may exist one, or a few, correct approaches to competition law enforcement, which in most cases emanate from developed jurisdictions, that are applicable to all. This book rejects this assumption and argues that developing countries ought to tailor competition law enforcement to their own economic and political circumstances. In particular, it suggests how competition law enforcement can better incorporate development concerns without causing undue dilution of its traditional focus on protecting consumer welfare. It proposes ways in which approaches to competition law enforcement need to be adjusted to reflect the special economic characteristics of developing country economies and the more limited enforcement capacity of developing country competition authorities. Finally, it also addresses the long-running debate concerning the desirability and viability of industrial policy for developing countries. The author would like to acknowledge the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for its generous support. The work in this book was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. HKU 742412H).




A Framework for the Design and Implementation of Competition Law and Policy


Book Description

A dynamic and competitive environment, underpinned by competition law policy, is an essential characteristic of successful market economies. To satisfy the growing demand for information on current approaches and practices in competition law policy, the project "Framework for the Design and Implementation of Competition Law-Policy" was initiated by the World Bank, with participation by OECD. This ensuing volume reflects the main issues that arise in design and implementation of competition law and policy in order to assist countries in developing an approach that suits their own needs and conditions. The views articulated in this publication suggest that the administration and enforcement of competition law policy should assign the greatest importance to fostering economic efficiency and consumer welfare.




Competition Law and Policy Reviews The Role of Guidelines in Fostering Competition Policy in Tunisia


Book Description

This report builds on the recommendations of the 2022 OECD Peer Review of Competition Law and Policy in Tunisia. It presents an overview of how to develop competition law guidelines across four areas (merger control, pecuniary penalties, leniency programmes and compliance programmes) and includes a comparative analysis of selected jurisdictions, with the view of assisting Tunisian authorities to develop their own guidelines.




The Antitrust Paradox


Book Description

The most important book on antitrust ever written. It shows how antitrust suits adversely affect the consumer by encouraging a costly form of protection for inefficient and uncompetitive small businesses.




The Atlantic Divide in Antitrust


Book Description

The United States and the European Union operate the world’s two most powerful systems of competition law and policy, whose enforcement and judicial institutions employ similar concepts and legal language. Yet the two regimes sometimes reach very different results on significant antitrust issues. In The Atlantic Divide in Antitrust, Daniel Gifford and Robert Kudrle show that a combination of differences in social values, political institutions, and legal precedent inhibit close convergence. The book explores the main contested areas of contemporary antitrust: mergers, price discrimination, predatory pricing, exclusive supply, conditional rebating, intellectual property, and Schumpeterian competition. The authors explore how the prevailing antitrust analyses differ in the EU and the U.S., the policy ramifications of these differences, and how the analyses used by the enforcement authorities or the courts in each of these several areas relate to each other. Several themes run through the substantive areas treated in the book: pricing incentives and constraints, welfare effects, and whether competition tends to be viewed as an efficiency generating process or as rivalry. The notorious Microsoft case offers a useful lens to examine copyright, patents, and trade secrets, and the authors take the opportunity to contemplate competition policy in dynamic, innovative industries more broadly. For the EU, competition policy has also functioned as a mechanism to bond national markets together in the EU structure; the USA, federal from the beginning, did not require this instrumental aspect in its antitrust doctrines. The Atlantic Divide concludes with forecasts and suggestions about how greater compatibility, if not convergence, might ultimately be attained.