This volume contains a selection of papers that were presented at the CRESSE Conferences held in Chania, Crete, from July 6th to 8th, 2012, and in Corfu from July 5th to 7th, 2013. The chapters address current policy issues in competition and regulation. The book contains contributions at the frontier of competition economics and regulation and provides perspectives on recent research findings in the field. Written by experts in their respective fields, the book brings together current thinking on market forces at play in imperfectly competitive industries, how firms use anti-competitive practices to their advantage and how competition policy and regulation can address market failures. It provides an in-depth analysis of various ongoing debates and offers fresh insights in terms of conceptual understanding, empirical findings and policy implications. The book contributes to our understanding of imperfectly competitive markets, anti-competitive practices and competition policy and regulation.

Although competition law and intellectual property are often interwoven, until this book there has been little guidance on how they work together in practice. As the intersection between the two fields continues to grow worldwide, both in case law and in regulation, the book's markets-based approach, focusing on sectors such as pharmaceuticals, IT, telecoms, energy and agriculture in eleven of the world's most active jurisdictions, provides a much-needed in-depth understanding of how this interplay reveals itself among the different legal systems. Written by a range of authors including judges, regulators, academics, economists and practitioners in both fields, the book provides an international comparative perspective as well as detailed analysis of specific cases, policies and proposals for change. Among the issues and topics covered are the following: – free movement of goods and the protection of intellectual property rights; – standard essential patents & injunction in patent cases; – intellectual property rights between technological development and consumer protection; – geo-blocking; – online platforms and antitrust; – excessive prices. In this context, special attention is paid throughout to the increasing dialogue among Competition Authorities and between Judges and Competition Authorities around the world. As matchless remedy for the lack of uniformity heretofore, the book's investigation of the nexus between competition law and intellectual property in different sectors and in various countries takes a giant step towards a more-balanced approach and more-levelled regulation and practices. It will be warmly appreciated by policy makers, decision makers, regulators, practitioners and academics in both competition law and intellectual property fields

This insightful book discusses the interaction of sector-specific regulation and competition policy. In particular, it identifies emerging trends and reflects on the nature of network regulation in the energy and telecom industries.

A distinguished economist examines competition, regulation, and stability in today's global banks Does too much competition in banking hurt society? What policies can best protect and stabilize banking without stifling it? Institutional responses to such questions have evolved over time, from interventionist regulatory control after the Great Depression to the liberalization policies that started in the United States in the 1970s. The global financial crisis of 2007–2009, which originated from an oversupply of credit, once again raised questions about excessive banking competition and what should be done about it. Competition and Stability in Banking addresses the critical relationships between competition, regulation, and stability, and the implications of coordinating banking regulations with competition policies. Xavier Vives argues that while competition is not responsible for fragility in banking, there are trade-offs between competition and stability. Well-designed regulations would alleviate these trade-offs but not eliminate them, and the specificity of competition in banking should be accounted for. Vives argues that regulation and competition policy should be coordinated, with tighter prudential requirements in more competitive situations, but he also shows that supervisory and competition authorities should stand separate from each other, each pursuing its own objective. Vives reviews the theory and empirics of banking competition, drawing on up-to-date analysis that incorporates the characteristics of modern market-based banking, and he looks at regulation, competition policies, and crisis interventions in Europe and the United States, as well as in emerging economies. Focusing on why banking competition policies are necessary, Competition and Stability in Banking examines regulation's impact on the industry's efficiency and effectiveness.

A nuanced assessment of the relationship between competition law and economic regulation, focusing on substantive and policy-oriented concerns.

This open access edited book captures the complexities and conflicts arising at the interface of intellectual property rights (IPR) and competition law. To do so, it discusses four specific themes: (a) policies governing functioning of standard setting organizations (SSOs), transparency and incentivising future innovation; (b) issue of royalties for standard essential patents (SEPs) and related disputes; (c) due process principles, procedural fairness and best practices in competition law; and (d) coherence of patent policies and consonance with competition law to support innovation in new technologies. Many countries have formulated policies and re-oriented their economies to foster technological innovation as it is seen as a major source of economic growth. At the same time, there have been tensions between patent laws and competition laws, despite the fact that both are intended to enhance consumer welfare. In this regard, licensing of SEPs has been debated extensively, although in most instances, innovators and implementers successfully negotiate licensing of SEPs. However, there have been instances where disagreements on royalty base and royalty rates, terms of licensing, bundling of patents in licenses, pooling of licenses have arisen, and this has resulted in a surge of litigation in various jurisdictions and also drawn the attention of competition/anti-trust regulators. Further, a lingering lack of consensus among scholars, industry experts and regulators regarding solutions and techniques that are apposite in these matters across jurisdictions has added to the confusion. This book looks at the processes adopted by the competition/anti-trust regulators to apply the principles of due process and procedural fairness in investigating abuse of dominance cases against innovators.

“A fascinating book about how platform internet companies (Amazon, Facebook, and so on) are changing the norms of economic competition.” —Fast Company Shoppers with a bargain-hunting impulse and internet access can find a universe of products at their fingertips. But is there a dark side to internet commerce? This thought-provoking exposé invites us to explore how sophisticated algorithms and data-crunching are changing the nature of market competition, and not always for the better. Introducing into the policy lexicon terms such as algorithmic collusion, behavioral discrimination, and super-platforms, Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice E. Stucke explore the resulting impact on competition, our democratic ideals, our wallets, and our well-being. “We owe the authors our deep gratitude for anticipating and explaining the consequences of living in a world in which black boxes collude and leave no trails behind. They make it clear that in a world of big data and algorithmic pricing, consumers are outgunned and antitrust laws are outdated, especially in the United States.” —Science “A convincing argument that there can be a darker side to the growth of digital commerce. The replacement of the invisible hand of competition by the digitized hand of internet commerce can give rise to anticompetitive behavior that the competition authorities are ill equipped to deal with.” —Burton G. Malkiel, Wall Street Journal “A convincing case for the need to rethink competition law to cope with algorithmic capitalism’s potential for malfeasance.” —John Naughton, The Observer

Competition Law and Regulation of Technology Markets takes a practical,integrated approach to EU and US competition law and regulation in the technology sector - including major trans-Atlantic cases such as Microsoft, Google/Doubleclick, and Intel, and important comparative issues such as refusal to supply (Microsoft, Trinko), margin squeeze (Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, EU Guidance Paper, Linkline), communications regulation and data protection.

This book brings together academics and experts on Turkish network industries. It provides fundamental information on the current developments regarding regulation of the different network industries in Turkey. Turkey has gone through a liberalization process in most of the network industries during the past 20 years. In most of them, independent regulatory authorities have been established, but some network industries are still remaining under the central or local government regulatory regime. As a result, there is now a very complicated regulatory regime in place which makes Turkey’s regulatory system difficult to understand for practitioners, academics, lawyers, researchers and investors. This book offers unique insight into Turkey’s regulatory regime in various network industries. It also offers a historical background to regulation, a description of the current regulatory regimes, as well as an analysis of the foreseeable evolutions. The book covers all the important network industries in Turkey. No similar book is available on the market to date. Moreover, the book provides an extensive analysis of the current regulatory regimes in the energy, the transport, and the telecommunications industries. This book should be of interest to anyone wishing to understand Turkish regulation and will be very helpful handbook to researchers who are interested in regulation of network industries not only in Turkey but also in other developing countries, as Turkey is quite representative of other emerging countries. Readers will acquire a thorough understanding of the state of play of the Turkish network industries and their regulation.

This insightful book discusses the interaction of sector-specific regulation and competition policy. In particular, it identifies emerging trends and reflects on the nature of network regulation in the energy and telecom industries. Expert contributors examine the recent European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), as well the relevant regulatory framework in the electricity and pharmaceutical sectors. Chapters consider key topics, such as the recent antitrust investigations concerning the excessive price of off-patent drugs and the impact of digitalization on the future of network industries. The book also assesses several examples of the complex relationship between sector-specific regulation and competition policy; a relationship constantly swinging between complementarity and conflict. Providing a comparative analysis of EU competition policy at both the EU and national levels, this timely book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of EU competition policy. It will also be beneficial for practitioners, specialising in the regulation of the telecom, energy and pharmaceutical industries.