UOKiK v Microsoft: stosowanie prawa konkurencji w sektorach nowej gospodarki a ryzyko bledu regulacyjnego

In August 2008, the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) referred to the European Commission the results of its proceedings concerning the conditions of sale of laptops with a pre-installed Windows operating system. According to the CCPA, Microsoft and laptop manufacturers might have entered into an agreement prohibited under Article 81 of the EC Treaty. This paper claims that the effects of the Microsoft‘s practice may go beyond the computer software market. Yet, enforcement of competition law in the sectors of new economy is a complex task due to the high risk of false positive and false negative errors, both of them resulting in efficiency loss. The overall aim of the paper is to stress that in order to be an effective tool for the regulation of competition, antitrust analysis should go deep into the understanding of the economic consequences of the practice involved.Available at: www.pseap.or

Regulatory functions of European contract law : theoretical foundations and practical applications

Defence date: 13 February 2013Examining board: Professor Fabrizio Cafaggi, European University Institute, Florence (Supervisor) Professor Dennis Patterson, European University Institute, Florence Professor Giuseppe Bellantuono, University of Trento Professor Marek Safjan, European Court of Justice, Luxembourg.PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD thesesContract law is increasingly becoming an important part of the European regulatory landscape. The increasing recourse to contract law as a regulatory technique triggers fundamental questions about the aims and the effects of contract law. This thesis tackles these questions by investigating the topic of regulatory functions of European contract law. The objective of the analysis is to see which contract law instrument performs which specific regulatory function at each institutional level (European and Member States). Claiming that traditional accounts of contract law do not yield satisfactory results when applied to the analysis of European contract law, I develop a theoretical framework based on the public interest theory of regulation with its central concept of market failure. Application of this framework demonstrates incentive effects that contract law creates for market actors. Because of these incentive effects, contract law can be regarded as a regulatory technique, equivalent to other techniques of social and economic regulation. I argue that regulatory use of contract law concerns not only the European but also the Member State level, and in both cases contract law regulates at all three stages of the regulatory process (standard-setting, monitoring and enforcement). Focusing on three general tools – mandatory rules, default rules, and the general clause of good faith – I demonstrate that each of them plays a different regulatory function. More importantly, regulatory functions of selected contract law instruments vary across institutional levels. Selected examples of the acquis communautaire, including the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union, serve as a major testing ground for regulatory functions of European contract law. Given the multi-level character of European contract law, I look at the national level as well. In order to emphasize the regulatory role of civil judges, specific examples are drawn from selected European jurisdictions

Microsoft a ekonomiczna analiza prawa

On March 24, 2004, the European Commission adopted a decision in the Microsoft case. This decision is likely to have a significant impact on the design of the computer programs market. The objective of this paper is to analyze economic consequences of the decision

The New European Legislative Framework for the Marketing of Goods

As a result of the review of the New Approach, a modernized regulatory framework for the marketing of goods and market surveillance will be applicable in the European Community beginning on January 1, 2010. The new comprehensive package of measures affects the governance of the Internal Market for goods with a view toward improving market access and safety of goods. The horizontal framework not only builds upon existing mechanisms but also adds some new regulatory tools to the present legislative regime. This Note describes the regulatory choices European legislators made with respect to governance of accreditation, conformity assessment, market surveillance, and CE marking

Microsoft a ekonomiczna analiza prawa (Law and Economics)

On March 24, 2004, the European Commission adopted a decision in the Microsoft case. This decision is likely to have a significant impact on the design of the computer programs market. The objective of this paper is to analyze economic consequences of the decision

UOKiK v Microsoft: Stosowanie prawa konkurencji w sektorach nowej gospodarki a ryzyko błędu regulacyjnego

In August 2008, the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) referred to the European Commission the results of its proceedings concerning the conditions of sale of laptops with a pre-installed Windows operating system. According to the CCPA, Microsoft and laptop manufacturers might have entered into an agreement prohibited under Article 81 of the EC Treaty. This paper claims that the effects of the Microsoft‘s practice may go beyond the computer software market. Yet, enforcement of competition law in the sectors of new economy is a complex task due to the high risk of false positive and false negative errors, both of them resulting in efficiency loss. The overall aim of the paper is to stress that in order to be an effective tool for the regulation of competition, antitrust analysis should go deep into the understanding of the economic consequences of the practice involved

Microsoft and Law & Economics

On March 24, 2004, the European Commission adopted a decision in the Microsoft case. This decision is likely to have a significant impact on the design of the computer programs market. The objective of this paper is to analyze economic consequences of the decision