In 2010 the Commission reviewed and replaced the generic block exemption applying to vertical agreements, Regulation 2790/1999, and its accompanying Guidelines, with a new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER), Regulation 330/2010, and Guidelines on Vertical Restraints. The fast growth of...

Every year the UK government spends billions of pounds purchasing goods, works and services that are vital to growth, development, health and social welfare. Performed well, public procurement helps a government to nurture competition, save money, and provide better public services. These...

This article outlines the principal reform proposals set out in the UK Government's Consultation Document, ‘A Competition Regime for Growth: A Consultation on Options for Reform.' Given the huge breadth of the proposals, however, it does not discuss each proposal in detail but focuses on the...

Governments around the world spend an estimated $9.5 trillion of public money purchasing goods and services each year (public procurement). Not only does this represent a significant proportion of government expenditure (29.1 percent on average in OECD countries) and of total gross domestic...

This article explores the question of whether, following the modernization of EU competition law, Article 101(1), or Article 101 as a whole, requires, or is developing toward requiring, a rule of reason analysis similar to that carried out in the US under section 1 of the Sherman Act of 1890. It...

In 2022 both the EU and the UK overhauled their regimes governing vertical agreements following the expiry of Regulation 330/2010, which had block exempted many vertical agreements from Article 101(1) TFEU and the Chapter I prohibition set out in the Competition Act 1998 respectively. This paper...

This paper examines the different images of the ‘consumer(s)’ drawn in EU Competition Law and seeks to identify exactly who those consumers are. The competition provisions in the TFEU make several express references to consumers without defining the term. Further, a number of allusions to...