Antitrust Bulletin articles from March 2004

Antitrust Bulletin archives from March 2004

Introduction: antitrust in the U.S. and the EU - converging or diverging paths?
March 22, 2004... I. Introduction As businesses and markets are globalizing, commercial practices and transactions increasingly have an impact across multiple jurisdictions. Many mergers nowadays have to be notified to various competition authorities and...

What is competition? A comparison of U.S. and European perspectives.
March 22, 2004... I. Introduction During the year and a half that I served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for International Enforcement in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Division undertook two major initiatives designed...

"Portfolio effects" in merger analysis: differences between EU and U.S. practice and recommendations for the future.
March 22, 2004... I. Despite convergence, significant differences remain The past decade has seen an enhanced vigor of antitrust enforcement within the European Union (EU), and an increasing convergence between its enforcement practices and those of the...

Substantial convergence or parallel paths? Similarities and differences in the economic analysis of horizontal mergers in U.S. and EU competition law.
March 22, 2004... Before the GE/Honeywell (1) case, the consensus was that transatlantic merger control displayed remarkable substantive convergence, despite substantial procedural differences. (2) In the aftermath of GE/Honeywell, commentators have emphasized...

EC merger policy after GE/Honeywell and Airtours.
March 22, 2004... The EC's (European Community's) Commission decision to block the GE/Honeywell merger ignited a wave of criticism from the U.S. not seen since the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas (1) merger in the mid-1990s. While Commission officials have reacted by...

A legal and economic consensus? The theory and practice of coordinated effects in EC merger control.
March 22, 2004... I. Introduction Since its introduction in 1990, European Community (EC) merger control has undergone a number of changes. (1) Of particular importance has been the use and evolving practice by the European Commission of the concept of...

The draft EU notice on horizontal mergers: a further step toward convergence.
March 22, 2004... I. Introduction The European Union (EU) merger control system is currently undergoing a process of comprehensive reform. An important step in this process has been the adoption by the European Commission, in December 2002, of a proposal to...

The antitrust economics of tying: a farewell to per se illegality.
March 22, 2004... I. Introduction Tying exists when the seller of a product requires his purchasers to take another product as well. The most robust statement one can make about tying is that it is ubiquitous. Consider the following examples: shoes are sold...

Monopoly pricing as an antitrust offense in the U.S. and the EC: two systems of belief about monopoly?
March 22, 2004... I. Introduction Basic economic theory contrasts two industry structures and their outcomes: a competitive, atomistic structure, comprised of many similar firms, and a monopoly structure containing but one firm. The competitive model denies...

Coherence or confusion: the future of the global antitrust conversation.
March 22, 2004... I. Introduction Not too long ago, there were so few national antitrust laws in existence that the notion of antitrust coherence among nations would have bordered on the fanciful. The United States had an antitrust law; Germany and Japan...

Competition Rules for the 21st Century: Principles from America's Experience.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... Competition Rules for the 21st Century: Principles from America's Experience Ky P. Ewing, Jr. Amsterdam: Kluwer (2003), 200 pp., $110. Ky Ewing, former Deputy Head of the Antitrust Division and former Chair of the ABA Section of...