L'émancipation du Conseil de la Concurrence? Note sous la décision du Conseil de la concurrence du 26 mai 2009 dans l'affaire Base/BMB

Enième avatar de la bataille juridique opposant les opérateurs alternatifs de communications électroniques à l’ancien monopole public Belgacom1, la décision commentée constitue une première pour Conseil de la concurrence (« le Conseil ») à plus d’un titre : première condamnation de l’opérateur historique, première caractérisation d’un ciseau tarifaire abusif, première décision infligeant une amende aussi élevée en Belgique. Après des années de carence dans l’application des règles de concurrence au secteur des communications électroniques le Conseil parait vouloir renverser la vapeur. Sonne peut-être – comme nous l’avons écrit précédemment – la « fin de la récréation pour l’opérateur historique ». Il faut sans doute s’en féliciter, la Belgique figurant depuis longtemps parmi les mauvais élèves de l’ouverture à la concurrence des industries de réseaux

Rapid response to the M_w 4.9 earthquake of November 11, 2019 in Le Teil, Lower Rhône Valley, France

On November 11, 2019, a Mw 4.9 earthquake hit the region close to Montelimar (lower Rhône Valley, France), on the eastern margin of the Massif Central close to the external part of the Alps. Occuring in a moderate seismicity area, this earthquake is remarkable for its very shallow focal depth (between 1 and 3 km), its magnitude, and the moderate to large damages it produced in several villages. InSAR interferograms indicated a shallow rupture about 4 km long reaching the surface and the reactivation of the ancient NE-SW La Rouviere normal fault in reverse faulting in agreement with the present-day E-W compressional tectonics. The peculiarity of this earthquake together with a poor coverage of the epicentral region by permanent seismological and geodetic stations triggered the mobilisation of the French post-seismic unit and the broad French scientific community from various institutions, with the deployment of geophysical instruments (seismological and geodesic stations), geological field surveys, and field evaluation of the intensity of the earthquake. Within 7 days after the mainshock, 47 seismological stations were deployed in the epicentral area to improve the Le Teil aftershocks locations relative to the French permanent seismological network (RESIF), monitor the temporal and spatial evolution of microearthquakes close to the fault plane and temporal evolution of the seismic response of 3 damaged historical buildings, and to study suspected site effects and their influence in the distribution of seismic damage. This seismological dataset, completed by data owned by different institutions, was integrated in a homogeneous archive and distributed through FDSN web services by the RESIF data center. This dataset, together with observations of surface rupture evidences, geologic, geodetic and satellite data, will help to unravel the causes and rupture mechanism of this earthquake, and contribute to account in seismic hazard assessment for earthquakes along the major regional Cévenne fault system in a context of present-day compressional tectonics

Costs in european competition law : essay on the transplant of an economic notion

Le recours à la théorie économique dans le raisonnement juridique de droit européen de la concurrence est un fait ; il est même grandissant. Aussi intéressante soit-elle pour la qualité de la jurisprudence, la réception de l’économie de la concurrence ne se fait pas toujours sans heurts, ni sans ambiguïté. La notion de coût l’illustre : si le coût emprunté à l’économie de la concurrence occupe aujourd’hui une place souvent essentielle dans le raisonnement juridique, les utilisations qui sont faites de cet « outil » font fréquemment l’objet de vives critiques de la part de la doctrine et des praticiens. C’est à ces utilisations que s’intéresse la thèse, en appréciant si l’emprunt de la notion économique de coût est ou non satisfaisante d’un point de vue juridique. Pour ce faire, une fois les principaux traits de la notion économique de coût dépeints, tant le rôle conféré au coût dans le raisonnement juridique que la détermination du coût qui est opérée en pratique en droit européen sont analysés. Compte tenu des divergences entre droit et économie relevées dans la pratique décisionnelle et la jurisprudence, l’étude s’intéresse aux motifs qui permettent d’expliquer pourquoi le droit ne suit pas nécessairement l’économie lorsqu’il recourt au coût. Même si bon nombre de ces motifs sont tout à fait légitimes, le caractère discutable de certains d’entre eux invite à envisager quelques pistes de nature substantielle permettant de renforcer la réception de la notion de coût en droit européen de la concurrence.European competition law uses economic theory and uses it increasingly. Even if it contributes to enhance the quality of competition law, the reception of competition economics into law is not unambiguous and smooth as the notion of cost illustrates: if the notion borrowed from competition economics is often central in the legal reasoning, the way this « tool » is used frequently leds to strong criticisms from doctrine and practitioners. The dissertation studies these uses, to assess whether the economic notion of cost is satisfactory used or not from a legal perspective. In order to do so, and after exposing the main features of the economic notion of cost, the role given to cost analyses in the legal reasoning as well as the determination of cost as done in European competition law are analysed. Given the discrepancies between law and economics in the use of the notion of cost found in case-law, the study looks at the rationale explaining why law does not necessarily follow economics when using costs. If several grounds are totally legitimate, the fact that other ones cannot be satisfactory invites to design some ways to improve the use of the notion of cost in European competition law

Ciseaux tarifaires abusifs: un aperçu des jurisprudences nationales de l'Union européenne

The purpose of this brief article is to introduce the reader to the national case-law on abusive margin squeezes that was commented in the e-competitions bulletin over the period 2003-2009.To this end, it seeks, to the extent possible, to analyze the 23 e-competitions case notes in relation to six items which are generally reviewed in margin squeeze cases, i.e., existence of an upstream input and a downstream product/service (1); indispensability of the upstream input (2); dominance in the upstream market and vertical integration (3); particularly aggressive downstream pricing policy (4); anticompetitive effects (5); absence of objective justifications (6). In addition, the present article reviews a seventh issue, namely sanctions and remedies (7), where national enforcement practices may again diverge/converge

Supporting Pre-Service Teachers as They Begin Their Mathematical Modeling Journey

A mathematical model “is a representation of a system or scenario that is used to gain qualitative and/or quantitative understanding of some real-world problems and to predict future behavior” (Bliss et al., 2014, p. 3). CCSSM and NJSLSM call for students to be able to engage in the mathematical practice of modeling; however, modeling is not always a main focus in teacher education curricula. To learn how to best support pre-service teachers (PSTs) as they begin to engage with mathematical modeling, we conducted two 75-minute sessions with PSTs where we: provided an introduction, had participants engage in two modeling tasks, and provided additional resources. From these sessions we utilized pre- and post-surveys along with audio recordings of the PSTs working in groups. This poster reports on the design and implementation of these two sessions, the benefits and concerns the PSTs noted while engaging in the sessions, and suggestions for the design of future sessions with PSTs. We found that PSTs had little prior exposure to mathematical modeling, yet were interested in and benefited from engaging collaboratively in the modeling enactments. The PSTs reported concerns about enacting modeling in their future classrooms, which included managing time constraints, supporting students’ mathematical thinking, and overcoming student frustration. Our recommendations for the design of future modeling sessions with PSTs include providing them with more examples of modeling tasks, having them watch implementation of modeling tasks by a practicing teacher with students, and having PSTs find and evaluate modeling tasks

Tracing the Mathematical Modeling Phases of Pre-Service Teachers: A MAD Analysis

Mathematical modeling has been receiving increased focus with researchers identifying its benefits for students, such as using mathematics in real world applications and affecting change in attitudes towards mathematics. Mathematical modeling also provides the opportunity to support equitable learning, promoting cooperation among students from various mathematical backgrounds with the use of low-floor and high-ceiling tasks. With numerous benefits, it is important to also examine how groups of pre-service teachers negotiate the modeling process in order to better support those who look to include modeling activities in their future classrooms. While there have been several theoretical modeling cycles published that describe the various phases, these tend to provide a simplified view of the complex nature of these tasks. To gain insight into this phenomena, we created, taught, and observed two mathematical modeling sessions for pre-service teachers. This work enabled us to explore how pre-service teachers move between phases of the modeling cycle and if these shifts mirror what is being represented in current modeling cycle diagrams. Our analysis focuses on a holistic task that was completed after pre-service teachers had learned about mathematical modeling and had attempted an atomistic task. We used a modified version of the Modeling Activity Diagram (MAD) framework to create a visual representation of group movements through the modeling cycle phases. While our analysis is ongoing, our emerging findings show that pre-service teachers are able to adapt to the complex nature of modeling activities to varying degrees as they work together to build their mathematical models