Le contrôle juridictionnel en droit européen de la concurrence : une évaluation quantitative et qualitative

Ever since the creation of the General Court (“GC”), the effectiveness of judicial review in European Union (“EU”) competition cases has sparked intense scholarly debates. This paper seeks to further contribute to this discussion in three ways. First, it devotes some space to fundamental, yet often overlooked questions, such as the goals or functions of judicial review and why judicial review of administrative decisions is important; particularly so in competition law matters. Second, this paper attempts to throw some empirical light on the GC’s judicial review of European Commission (“Commission”) decisions in the field of competition law. Third, it places a specific emphasis on the particular situation of abuse of dominance law, where the GC has exercised its judicial review power with more restraint than in other areas of competition law (such as restrictive agreements and mergers). With these goals in mind, this paper follows a five-stage progression. First, on the basis of a survey of the relevant legal, economic and political science literature, it defines the functions of judicial review and identifies a set of indicators which can be used to assess the performance of the GC’s judicial scrutiny (Part I). Second, it explains why judicial review in EU competition law cases is of critical importance notably given the institutional and procedural deficiencies of the EU enforcement structure (Part II). Third, it discusses the nature and standard of review currently applied by the GC with a particular focus on the degree to which the GC is willing to review “complex economic matters” (Part III). Fourth, it provides some quantitative data on the case-law of the GC to assess whether several goals or functions attributed to judicial review by the scientific literature are met (Part IV). Finally, this paper takes a closer look at the (controversial) case-law of the GC in the field of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) (Part V)

Market Access, Competitiveness, and Harmonization: Environmental Protection in Regional Trade Agreements

This Article examines the relationship between trade liberalization and environmental protection, focusing on how conflicts between these policy domains may be alleviated and made mutually reinforcing, especially in the context of regional trade agreements. Part II describes the various concerns that the parallel pursuit of trade liberalization and environmental protection have raised. Part III suggests a taxonomy of responses to the tensions between trade and environmental policy outlined in Part II. The nature and characteristics of these tools and strategies vary considerably, consistent with the diverse set of concerns to which they respond. The spectrum of strategies ranges from total non-integration of environmental policies and a laissez-faire approach to differences in environmental standards across jurisdictions, to total harmonization of environmental standards, which requires a high degree of regulatory integration. Part IV applies the theoretical framework outlined in Parts II and III to two regional trade agreements, the EC and NAFTA. This Article examines, in particular, the extent to which the trade and environment concerns discussed in Part II have arisen in these two agreements, as well as the degree to which the responses discussed in Part III have been used to address these concerns. Part V discusses the extent to which the experience with regional trade agreements might apply to the trade and environment issues arising in the context of the World Trade Organization (the WTO ). Part VI offers some general conclusions. Specifically, we suggest that trade liberalization and advanced economic integration require some degree of integration in other realms, including environmental regulation. Fortunately, there are a variety of policy tools-especially various forms of regulatory harmonization-available to respond to this need. Those who assume that harmonization implies uniform standards, and thus dismiss it as inefficient, fail to appreciate the range of effective and refined strategies for policy coordination. We observe that the EC could benefit from valuable lessons in NAFTA, and NAFTA could learn from EC experiences in the reconciliation of competing trade and environmental goals. Finally, those pursuing future trade liberalization in either regional or multilateral agreements could profit from examining the successes and failures of the EC and NAFTA

GDPR Myopia: how a well-intended regulation ended up favouring large online platforms - the case of ad tech

This paper argues that while the GDPR has arguably delivered positive outcomes by enhancing the protection afforded to data subjects, it has also had adverse effects on competition by strengthening the position of large online platforms in certain markets. In addition, the GDPR has given large platforms a tool to harm rivals by restricting access to the data they need to compete effectively. The present paper focuses on digital advertising and the ad tech industry, where the GDPR appears to have strengthened Google and Facebook. The purpose of this paper is not to call for the weakening of the GDPR, whose positive impact on users cannot be ignored. While from a policy standpoint regulators should thus maintain or even increase the level of protection offered by this legislation, it is vital that they take steps to mitigate its adverse effects on other dimensions of welfare, such as competition

Globalisation challenges for Europe: Report by the Secretariat of the Economic Council - PART I

The report analyses globalisation and the policy challenges it poses for Europe. The report comprises 13 articles by European experts, the first describing the globalisation phenomenon and its consequences in the light of latest economic research, followed by three commentary articles to supplement the globalisation analysis. EU competitiveness and EU countries’ structural policy are then surveyed in general. Two articles examine the EU internal market, while four articles analyse innovation policy widely. The final two articles discuss political governance of global and European economic policy issues