The first prong of Article 82 of the EC Treaty, which prohibits abuses of a dominant position, requires, prior to the identification of abusive behaviour, evidence that the firm under scrutiny enjoys a dominant position. Surprisingly, this issue seems to be sometimes overlooked. Enforcers,...

Drawing from the economics of two-sided markets, we provide suggestions for the definition of the relevant market in cases involving two-sided platforms, such as media outlets, online intermediaries, payment cards companies and auction houses. We also discuss when a one-sided approach may be...

We review the burgeoning literature on two-sided markets focusing on the different definitions that have been proposed. In particular, we show how the well-known definition given by Evans is a particular case of the more general definition proposed by Rochet and Tirole. We then identify the...

Striking the right balance in dealing with emerging issues at the intersection between competition and IPR's can present serious challenges. Damien Geradin & Hee-Eun Kim (Covington & Burling)

Access to the network is one of the key tools used by regulators to stimulate competition in network industries. For instance, incumbents in the telecommunications sector, in the European Union and elsewhere, are typically mandated to grant access to their network to their rivals. Third-party...

There is a large strand of legal and economic literature suggesting the FRAND regime is broken and that standardization is at risk given “hold-up and “royalty stacking” problems. A variety of proposals have been made to address these alleged problems, most of which seeking to decrease the...

In this paper, we discuss the extent to which EU competition rules are arbitrable. There is a wide consensus that Articles 101 and 102 TFEU are fully arbitrable and we share that opinion. More challenging questions may, however, arise when the dispute subject to arbitration raises issues under...