The present contribution aims to assess the extent to which the advent over the past ten years of a so-called “effects-based approach” in the enforcement of EU competition law has modified the notion of restriction of competition in relation to agreements and other collaborative...

The present paper aims to assess whether and to what extent a “logic of pluralism” has permeated nowadays the internal market case law of the EU Court of Justice, in spite of the latter's long-standing stance as the ultimate guardian of the unity of the market and that of the law. To do so,...

Drawing both from earlier policy discussions and more recent empirical findings, this paper explores the functioning of the European Competition Network. It is structured in two parts: (i) part one aims first to identify the various driving forces that have prompted the switch towards a network...

Since five years now, the financial crisis dominates the EU agenda. What started as the tail of the US subprime crisis turned into a “systemic” issue with the freezing of the wholesale funding market subsequent to Lehman Brothers' filing for Chapter 11 protection on September 15, 2008 (at...

In recent months, the European Commission has faced a surge in protectionist moves by Member States designed to protect national companies from foreign acquirers. To resist those attempts, it has relied on a relatively peculiar yet theoretically powerful tool: Article 21 of the EC Merger...

The European Union was once portrayed as powerless in the face of the financial crisis. In fact, as apparent from this contribution, it has been at the forefront of the coordination of the rescue plans designed by the Member States and of the reform of the financial system. Those two aspects are...

This contribution illustrates the European Commission's reliance on EU state aid rules to pursue a complex mix of competition and regulatory objectives in the framework of the financial crisis. Section 1 sketches the framework that enabled the Commission to review bailout plans and condition...