Description
This module is intended to offer ELS students a deep exposure to the origins and theoretical underpinnings of EU Competition Law and Greek Competition Law. Attention will focus on both regulatory and academic analyses, as well as EU and Greek court precedents.
Objectives
Students will be acquainted with novel approaches in competition law, embraced by the EU Competition authorities and EU courts, including, but not limited to, the interface of digital economy and competition rules, the assessment of sharing economy schemes, and exclusionary practices of dominant undertakings (self- preferencing, abuse of data protection rules).
Contents
Reference will be made to the territorial ambit of EU Competition Rules, the effect of anticompetitive practices on trade between EU Member States, as well as the basic concepts of the economics of competition (perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, market definition, market power and dominance, empirical methods for market definition and the assessment of market power). Students will also be guided through the basic concepts and basic “pillars” of the EU Competition and Greek Competition substantive rules. Topics discussed include collusive practices (cartels, agreements on prices and trading conditions, output restrictions, market – sharing and customer allocation agreements, information exchanges, horizontal cooperation agreements and joint ventures); vertical agreements (the Block Exemption Regulation 330/2010 and guidelines, agency agreements, cumulative effect); abuses of dominant position (exclusionary pricing and non – pricing practices, exploitative forms of abuse); merger control (jurisdictional scope of the Merger Regulation, substantive appraisal of concentrations, Merger Regulation procedure, ancillary restraints); and intellectual property rights and EU Competition Rules (technology transfer agreements, trademark licenses, abusive exercise of intellectual property rights, refusal to license intellectual property rights, misuse of regulatory process). Part of the course will deal with the enforcement system of EU competition rules under Regulation 1/2003 (the legal exception system, the European Competition Network and the allocation of cases, the Commission’s powers of investigation and decisions, commitments and settlement, fines for substantive infringements), as well as the options available to the competition authorities and undertakings, including fine settlement, commitments, and leniency. Finally, ELS students will be familiarized with the intricacies of civil damage litigation principles, in the wake of implementation of EU Directive 2014/104 by the majority of the EU Member-States.
Academic Requirements
Participants are required to have at least some basic previous knowledge of European and Competition Law.
Teaching method
The course will run under both seminar and workshop format, which requires a high degree of student activity. Students are expected to write a paper and make a presentation based on the paper (formative assessment). Participants to the classes will be supported through the discussion of jurisprudence and administrative cases, as well as by other practical cases and related legal materials.
Lecturers
The course is taught by Associate Professor Alexandra Mikroulea and Assistant Professor Effie Kinini.
Assessment and testing