THE COMPATIBILITY OF EU ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT WITH FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
(2012) JAEM01 20121Department of Law
- Abstract
- Developing market integration is an underlying feature of the Union project with market harmonisation and deeper integration at the heart of the Union’s modernisation project. Competition law and antitrust enforcement plays a key role in creating the balance between free trade and regulation, to protect and encourage the growth of European market. Following the introduction of the modernising Regulation (1/2003) the Commission has been afforded wide-ranging powers including the ability to conduct inspections of business premises and private homes with extensive powers to request documents, information and oral statements alongside the authority to impose staggeringly large penalties for non-compliance or for anti competitive behaviour.... (More)
- Developing market integration is an underlying feature of the Union project with market harmonisation and deeper integration at the heart of the Union’s modernisation project. Competition law and antitrust enforcement plays a key role in creating the balance between free trade and regulation, to protect and encourage the growth of European market. Following the introduction of the modernising Regulation (1/2003) the Commission has been afforded wide-ranging powers including the ability to conduct inspections of business premises and private homes with extensive powers to request documents, information and oral statements alongside the authority to impose staggeringly large penalties for non-compliance or for anti competitive behaviour. These powers are arguably the tools of regulation that facilitate behavioural and structural changes to create a truly competitive market within the Union. At the same time it presents a tension, in that by its nature competition law acts as a restriction on the ability of corporations to trade freely, to own and enjoy property and to increase their market share with the inevitable consequence of higher profits. The question becomes one of degree, how far should competition rules stretch to protect the market from harmful practices such as market division, price fixing and the abuse of large market shares? More importantly for the purposes of this paper is the question of the check and balance on the use of competition rules to the detriment of companies. Put another way how is the regulator regulated?
One such method is to afford commercial entities access to basic procedural rights protection as they stem from the Union and other international agreements especially the ECHR. This paper will focus on these questions examining the scope of procedural rights available to companies subject to antitrust investigations and penalties and the extent to which such rights are adequately protected. In doing so challenging the assumption that the Commissions powers are sufficiently balanced with procedural rights protection and question whether the Union approach to the rights of companies is in compliance with the ECHR and the Charter. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/2535867
- author
- Pierce, Justin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JAEM01 20121
- year
- 2012
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Fundamental Rights, EU, Competition Law
- language
- English
- id
- 2535867
- date added to LUP
- 2017-10-02 11:42:20
- date last changed
- 2017-10-02 11:42:20
@misc{2535867,
abstract = {{Developing market integration is an underlying feature of the Union project with market harmonisation and deeper integration at the heart of the Union’s modernisation project. Competition law and antitrust enforcement plays a key role in creating the balance between free trade and regulation, to protect and encourage the growth of European market. Following the introduction of the modernising Regulation (1/2003) the Commission has been afforded wide-ranging powers including the ability to conduct inspections of business premises and private homes with extensive powers to request documents, information and oral statements alongside the authority to impose staggeringly large penalties for non-compliance or for anti competitive behaviour. These powers are arguably the tools of regulation that facilitate behavioural and structural changes to create a truly competitive market within the Union. At the same time it presents a tension, in that by its nature competition law acts as a restriction on the ability of corporations to trade freely, to own and enjoy property and to increase their market share with the inevitable consequence of higher profits. The question becomes one of degree, how far should competition rules stretch to protect the market from harmful practices such as market division, price fixing and the abuse of large market shares? More importantly for the purposes of this paper is the question of the check and balance on the use of competition rules to the detriment of companies. Put another way how is the regulator regulated?
One such method is to afford commercial entities access to basic procedural rights protection as they stem from the Union and other international agreements especially the ECHR. This paper will focus on these questions examining the scope of procedural rights available to companies subject to antitrust investigations and penalties and the extent to which such rights are adequately protected. In doing so challenging the assumption that the Commissions powers are sufficiently balanced with procedural rights protection and question whether the Union approach to the rights of companies is in compliance with the ECHR and the Charter.}},
author = {{Pierce, Justin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{THE COMPATIBILITY OF EU ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT WITH FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS}},
year = {{2012}},
}