| Popis: |
This chapter addresses antitrust, mainly from an European perspective, but with some consideration of the US. ‘Antitrust’ is a collective name for different types of legislation. It includes at least prohibition of cartels — agreements between undertakings and concerted practices — of abuse of dominant position or ‘monopolization’, and merger control. These areas of antitrust differ considerably. Cartels require the coordinated effort of more than one undertaking, whereas abuse of dominant position is in principle a practice committed by a single undertaking. Enforcement of cartel and abuse of dominant position rules mostly apply ex post facto, when the illegal practices have displayed some of their effects. Conversely, merger control happens before a merger between two undertakings has become effective, requiring notification of certain deals before they are consummated, therefore it is mostly ex ante and it requires a notable amount of forward-looking evaluation by the antitrust authorities. |
