Almost a year ago, and after substantial debate and a long legislative process, the reform of Spanish competition regulation was completed. The new Competition Act, which came into force on September 1, 2007, supersedes the previous Act of 1989 and significantly transforms the Spanish system for...

Despite growing global interest in the use of algorithmic behavioural screens, big data and machine learning to detect bid rigging in procurement markets, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was under no obligation to undertake a project in this area, much less to publish a...

In this study we provide an up-to-date assessment of situations in which universities are bound by public procurement rules, as well as the combined changes that market-based university financing mechanisms can bring about in relation to the regulation of university procurement and to the...

In EasyPay and Finance Engineering (C-185/14), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has revisited the concept of undertaking for the purposes of the application of EU competition law. It has clarified the test applicable to economic agents engaging in ‘mixed' economic and...

This chapter revisits the interaction between the EU rules on State aid and on public procurement. It probes the standard presumption that compliance with EU procurement rules excludes the existence of State aid because public tenders are apt to replicate market conditions and thus suppress any...

Spanish Abstract: Este artículo revisa, desde la perspectiva de la reforma de las actividades de contratación llevadas a cabo por las entidades locales españolas, las principales novedades que las Directivas 2014/23 y 2014/24 introducen para el desarrollo de actividades de compra colaborativa...

This paper looks at public procurement and State aid rules as two examples of areas of EU economic law subjected to interpretative and enforcement difficulties due to the introduction, sometimes veiled, of subjective elements in their main prohibitions. The paper establishes parallels with other...

Public procurement is a pillar in the Europe 2020 strategy and one of the core policies derived from the Single Market Acts I and II. Majoritarian views advocate for an interventionist approach and instrumental utilisation of procurement for the promotion of horizontal policies seen as deeply...

This paper assesses the competition law and State aid implications of the CJEU Judgment in Azienda sanitaria locale n. 5 "Spezzino" and Others, C-113/13, EU:C:2014:2440 (Spezzino). It pays particular attention at the departure from the Altmark test for the assessment of public support granted to...

This paper aims to assess the likelihood that State aid enforcement can be revitalised in the post-crisis period as a result of the 2012-2014 State aid modernisation process (SAM). The paper takes the view that State aid enforcement was left in a difficult impasse as a result of the...