The Department of Justice ("DOJ") monopoly report is enormously disappointing for a number of reasons. The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") was wise to participate in this important project, but equally wise to distance itself from the final work product. The final report represents a serious...

The January 2012 decision of the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) to fine Pfizer and Pharmacia €10.6 million is an illustration of the more aggressive trend taken by competition authorities in the pharmaceutical sector. In this case, the ICA alleges that the parties sought to delay...

Price discrimination is one of the most complex areas of EC competition law. There are several reasons for this. First, the concept of price discrimination covers many different practices (discounts and rebates, tying, selective price cuts, discriminatory input prices set by...

This comment addresses the opinion of the Advocate General (AG) of the European Court of Justice on the pending case European Super League versus UEFA/FIFA. It takes a critical perspective on selected aspects of the opinion’s reasoning from a (sports) economics perspective. Highlighting the...

This paper provides an overview of recent developments in algorithmic antitrust, and the economics and legal issues raised in the areas of abuse of dominance, algorithmic pricing and collusion, and mergers and acquisition. The general theme is that while much has been made of the possible...

The paper aims to contribute to the reflection on both the role that personal data has acquired in the mostly dominant business models of the digital economy and how this is likely to pose substantive challenges to EU competition law. After sixty years since its foundation, getting an exhaustive...

In five recent cases involving the acquisition of European companies by Chinese state-owned enterprises, the European Commission has delved deeply into the relationship between Chinese state-owned enterprises and the wider Chinese State. A common issue arose in these cases: Did the notifying...

In competition law, the relevant market acts as a filter that delineates that part of commerce within which competition law assesses companies’ market behaviour. This contribution considers how competition law can reconcile the legal concept of the relevant market with its economic roots. It...

I examine Google's pattern and practice of tying to leverage its dominance into new sectors. In particular, I show how Google used these tactics to enter numerous markets, to compel usage of its services, and often to dominate competing offerings. I explore the technical and commercial...

The DOJ and FTC monopolization cases against Google and Facebook, respectively, represent the most important federal non-merger antitrust initiatives since (at least) the 1990s. As in any monopolization case, market delineation will be a central feature of both cases – as it was in the du Pont...