This paper analyzes the evolution of Competition law and policy in the recent new Member States of the European Union. Institutions and rules were established in these countries throughout the nineties and there is already some experience about their enforcement, with relevant implications for...

This paper studies the use of merger review as a shield to obstacle hostile tender offers of a company. Commenting on the transaction Oracle/PeopleSoft (2004) it reflects on the significance and risks of the antitrust authorities' analysis of M&A. The correct definition of the relevant market...

This article looks at the commonalities and disparities in the rules against single-firm market abuses in the US and in the EU and their enforcement. Despite they target the same type of business behaviour, the US and the EU have always followed divergent paths. This article will examine...

This paper makes an original contribution to the literature on the developing area of private enforcement of EU competition law. It delivers a significant, rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the transposition across a broad selection of Member States (MS) of a major EU Directive introduced...

Block exemption regulations (BER) survived the modernisation of EC competition law. According to the European Commission and some commentators, BER have a major role to play in the system instituted by Regulation 1/2003. Others are more critical and consider that BER are hard to nest within the...

Tort Law is not harmonised at a European level. Substantive and procedural regulations vary substantially across EU Member States in most of the facets and dimensions of damages actions. These differences derive, amongst other causes, from different legal traditions. However, significant efforts...

The implementation of the EU Services Directive (2006/123/CE) should entail a boost of freedom of enterprise and free competition in the services sector in Spain. Although a proper interpretation of both these constitutional principles should have already led to the elimination of many barriers...

The enforcement of State aid prohibition in the current economic crisis provides a good example of threats faced by competition policy. At first sight one may think that state aid control by the EC Commission could become an easy 'victim' of the economic crisis due to the current multiplication...