Pesquisar

In the first year of the 117th US Congress (2021-2022), members of both the House and the Senate saw an urgent need both for a trade policy offensive specifically for the Indo-Pacific region to maintain US leadership in setting international standards and norms, and for an upgrade of defensive trade policy tools to address China's unfair trade practices. Congressional initiatives have coincided with debates in the European Parliament on the EU's Indo-Pacific strategy and on legislative proposals ...

The study collates information on discrimination against consumers on grounds of place of residence or nationality in the Digital Single Market (DSM). Collected evidence indicates such practices as refusals to sell or discriminatory conditions depriving consumers of access to goods and services on DSM or obliging consumers to pay higher prices. The study assesses discrimination from the perspective of different areas of European law including Article 20 (2) of Services Directive, Private International ...

The European Commission enforces the competition rules through its powers of investigation and sanction. Competition cases can be taken to the General Court with appeals heard by the Court of Justice.

This briefing note describes the risk of undue influence, corruption and collusion on sector-governance decisions and the award of concession contracts. State intervention to reduce market failure easily creates a risk of governance failure, and this concern must be addressed to secure the intended combination of market forces and sector regulation – as is so well offered by concession contracts. Harmonised EU legislation specifically on the award of concession contracts is an important step to reduce ...

As concession contracts are long-term agreements that are inherently incomplete, the economic literature suggests that rigid award rules are inadequate. We suggest that the Directive for the awarding of concession contracts should contain a balanced mix of flexible and rigid rules, as well as procedures to increase the transparency and accountability of contracting parties. This briefing note provides suggestions in order to avoid the closure of markets and other dysfunctions in the awarding of concession ...

The establishment of a set of antitrust compatible agreements is crucial in strengthening the economic power of producers. Better regulation principles call for a smart approach to the Single CMO proposal based on the extension of rules and the promotion of compatible practices like codes of conduct, standards contracts, quality schemes or price observatories. Furthermore, there should be more emphasis given to encouraging a consistent and unique interpretation of EU Competition Law since the ...

This note analyses the functioning of Chinese export finance activities and their potential implications for OECD members and China’s partner developing countries. From our analysis, it emerges that over the past decades, China’s policy banks (China Eximbank, Sinosure, China Development Bank, and China Agricultural Development Bank) have provided an increasing amount of export credit financing which may take several different forms including preferential export buyers’ credits, export sellers’ credits ...

At EU level, there are no comprehensive rules with regard to business-to-business unfair commercial practices. This briefing paper examines the usefulness of the introduction of such type of legislation.

This study provides an overview of administrative proceedings in the area of EU competition law, more in particular, Articles 101 and 102 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and merger control, while focusing on different levels of procedural protection for complainants, interested third parties, and parties subject to investigation. It thereby aims to provide insight as to where – at a practical level – the prevailing procedural provisions provide an effective safeguard for the parties ...

This briefing note examines the issues arising from the proposed new Code of Conduct for Computerised Reservation Systems. Particular attention is given to competition impact among market players (and issues related to parent carriers), MIDT travel agents information withdrawal, third country violations, and possible safeguards.