This fascinating book describes and analyses the development of competition law in South Africa, promoting a deeper understanding of the development of this foundational economic law within its specific national, social and economic context. Enforcing Competition Rules in South Africa is a clear and insightful account of the establishment and first decade of one of the most successful competition law institutions to have mushroomed over the past 15 years. David Lewis believes that, while there is much to learn from international scholarship and jurisprudence and from participation in the various multinational initiatives in this field, competition law and its institutions have to be understood within their national economic and social contexts. Drawing strongly on case law and enforcement experiences, this book will appeal to academics, researchers and practitioners of competition law and economics.

Shaping markets through competition and economic regulation is at the heart of addressing the development challenges facing countries in southern Africa. The contributors to Competition Law and Economic Regulation: Addressing Market Power in southern Africa critically assess the efficacy of the competition and economic regulation frameworks, including the impact of a number of the regional competition authorities in a range of sectors throughout southern Africa. Featuring academics as well as practitioners in the field, the book addresses issues common to southern African countries, where markets are small and concentrated, with particularly high barriers to entry, and where the resources to enforce legislation against anti-competitive conduct are limited. What is needed, the contributors argue, is an understanding of competition and regional integration as part of an inclusive growth agenda for Africa. By examining competition and regulation in a single framework, and viewing this within the southern African experience, this volume adds new perspectives to the global competition literature. It is an essential reference tool and will be of great interest to policymakers and regulators, as well as the rapidly growing ecosystem of legal practitioners and economists engaged in the field.

An important and timely contribution to rapidly growing competition law in South Africa, this study meets the need for critical evaluation of the developments in the field since the Competition Act came into force in 1999. Chapters cover vital questions ranging from broad policy considerations to technical issues in the main areas of competition evaluation, namely merger assessment, abuse-of-dominance enforcement, and the detection and prosecution of cartels. The book reflects on the maturing South African competition law regime and discusses a framework for promotion competition in electronic communications; vertical arithmetic and its application in vertical mergers; price discrimination in input markets; the empirical differences between collusion, parallelism, and competition; and the role of information exchange in facilitating collusion.

This contributed volume focuses on competition policy enforcement in BRICS and developing counties. It examines the role and application of economic analysis and evidence in law enforcement procedures, as well as their influence on competition authorities’ policy-making. The contributors also address topics such as recent developments in competition law and practice, institutional design, indicators of performance in enforcement, the incorporation of public interest concerns in Competition Authority objectives, procedural fairness, procurement procedures and compulsory licensing.

Private Enforcement of European Competition and State Aid Law Current Challenges and the Way Forward Edited by: Ferdinand Wollenschläger, Wolfgang Wurmnest & Thomas M.J. Möllers The overlapping European Union (EU) regimes of competition law and State aid law both provide mechanisms allowing private plaintiffs to claim compensation for losses or damages. It is thus of significant practical value to provide, as this book does, analysis and guidance on achieving enforcement of such claims, written by renowned authorities in the two fields. The book examines the two areas of law both from an EU perspective and from the perspectives of private enforcement in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. In country reports for these major jurisdictions, as well as in more general and comparative chapters, the authors focus on such issues as the following: impediments to private enforcement; which entity is liable for damages; binding effect of decisions of competition authorities; limitation of actions; collective actions and pooling of claims; enforcement of the standstill obligation (Article 108(3) TFEU); remedies and information deficits; cooperation and coordination between national courts and the European Commission; transposition of the so-called Damages Directive (Directive 2014/104/EU) by the EU Member States; extent to which the strengthening of private enforcement of competition law has a spillover effect on State aid law; and prospects for harmonisation of State aid law. A concluding section identifies enforcement deficits and proposes ways to improve the existing legal framework. As an in-depth assessment of key obstacles and best practices in private enforcement actions, this highly informative and practical volume facilitates choice of the best forum for competition and State aid law cases. Academics and practitioners engaged with this important area of European law will appreciate the authors’ awareness of the economic need and legal particularities which could generate an effective European system of private enforcement of legitimate claims under EU competition and State aid law.

This book offers an excellent combination for the competition policy practitioner: clear guidelines that are based on wide experience in the practice of competition policy, but always well-grounded in solid academic scholarship and theorectical training.

By their nature, remedies are central to competition law enforcement and represent the yardstick against which the efficiency of the overall system can be measured. Yet very rarely have remedies been treated in a horizontal and comprehensive manner from the combined perspectives of substance, process and policy. The present volume, developed in partnership with the College of Europe’s Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC), provides coherent, practical, and authoritative commentaries by leading experts from the GCLC’s incomparable network. The contributions – originally presented at the 2019 GCLC annual conference – examine remedies to assess the overall effectiveness of competition law enforcement in merger, antitrust and State aid matters. The overall topic is presented under five headings: objectives and limitations of remedies; types of remedies in competition law enforcement; implementation and process; ex post assessment of remedies and policy lessons; and national and international approaches. The high-profile and wide-ranging group of authors includes the Director-General of the European Commission’s competition department, lawyers from major international firms, and well-known economists and academics specialising in competition law. With a sharp focus on how to make competition rules work well in today’s digital environment, this systematic and coherent analysis illuminates an issue that we need to fully grasp and understand in order to make sense of competition policy, law and enforcement in the years and decades to come.

This is a book on market law and policy in sub-Saharan Africa. It shows how markets can be harnessed by poorer and developing economies to help make the markets work for them: to help them integrate into the world economy and raise the standard of living for their people while preserving their values of inclusive development. It studies particular countries and particular regions, delving deeply into the facts.

This book analyses essential concepts of competition law and industrial policy, and shows where the two areas clash with and complement each other, respectively. The discussion takes place in the context of developing countries, taking into consideration their realities and specific needs. South Africa serves as a real-world example for competition law that goes beyond the notion of consumer welfare. An in-depth analysis of the enforcement of South African law illustrates how the law is used both to combat the negative effects of past industrial policy, and to accommodate current economic and social needs.The book is intended for all readers with an interest in the enforcement of competition law in developing countries. It will particularly benefit those who want to learn about unorthodox approaches that integrate the concept of “public interest” and social imperatives into the application of competition law.

Although Article 23(5) of EU Regulation 1/2003 provides that competition law fines ‘shall not be of a criminal law nature’, this has not prevented certain criminal law principles from finding their way into European Union (EU) competition law procedures. Even more significantly, the deterrent effect of competition law fines has led courts in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (UK), as well as the European Court of Human Rights, to conclude that competition law proceedings can lead to a criminal charge. This book offers the first book-length study of whether courts do indeed apply criminal law principles in competition law proceedings and, if so, how these principles are adapted to the needs and characteristics of competition law. Focusing on competition law developments (both legislative and judicial) over a period of twenty years in three jurisdictions – the Netherlands, the UK and the EU – the author compares how each of the following (criminal law) principles has emerged and been interpreted in each jurisdiction’s proceedings: freedom from self-incrimination; non bis in idem; burden and standard of proof; legality and legal certainty; and proportionality of sanctions. The author offers proposals involving both legislative and judicial actions, with examples of judges invoking criminal law principles to develop an appropriate level of safeguards in competition law proceedings. The book shows that criminal law can provide a rich source of inspiration for the judiciary on the appropriate level of legal safeguards in competition law proceedings. As such, it provides an important source of information and guidance for lawyers and judges dealing with competition law matters. "The work is well argued and well researched. Indeed, it is almost encyclopaedic in its use and citation of case law and secondary material....This book provides a valuable resource for anyone (whether as advocate, investigator, adjudicator or academic researcher) who wishes to understand how these criminal law principles are used in, and to protect those subject to, administrative law-based competition investigations.” Bruce Wardhaugh (Lecturer at the University of Manchester) Common Market Law Review, 2021, vol 58, issue 1, page 236