Competition Laws National Interests And International Relations

Most of the competition laws currently enforced by states aim to protect consumer welfare and promote fair competition by regulating against anticompetitive behavior. Yet despite the shared objectives the global community does not have a common global competition law. In exploring the reasons for this, this book takes a unique interdisciplinary approach by using international relations theories to illustrate the relationship between the enforcement of competition laws and international relations through an analysis of competition cases relating to cartels, extraterritoriality, and corporate mergers and acquisitions. Through an examination of this relationship, this book will consider why the views held by state leaders on the condition of international relations may at times lead them to either arbitrarily over-enforce or disregard their competition laws to the detriment of fair competition and consumer welfare. This book also provides suggestions for global business investors who face competition law issues on how they may accommodate such views.

"May 2009."--T.p.

Moreover, states have powerful incentives to permit domestic industries to exploit outsiders, or even to facilitate such practices. High-profile antitrust conflicts, from the prosecution of Microsoft in state, national, and international forums to the transatlantic disagreement over the European Union's merger policy, illustrate the difficulties. Possible solutions to these problems range from improved intergovernmental cooperation, to direct policy harmonization, to a new regime of "structured competition" in antitrust policy modeled on U.S. corporation law.

'This is a very timely book which provides an unprecedented analysis of the factors which have shaped the competition law systems of ten Asian countries and Australia. The comprehensive discussion from varying viewpoints against the backdrop of the significantly different environments within which the respective regimes have developed creates a framework for the comparative assessment of competition law systems elsewhere in the world.' Lutz-Christian Wolff, The Chinese University of Hong Kong 'New competition laws have been adopted throughout Asia in recent years, and some of the older laws have been significantly strengthened. This makes Asia a fascinating region in which to look at the political and economic circumstances of the countries in which such laws are to be found, and to consider the very different conditions that exist within them. This book will be an invaluable guide to anyone with an interest in the developing competition law regimes of this immensely important part of the world.' Richard Whish, King's College London, UK This detailed book describes and analyses the essential political economy features that provide the backdrop to the competition policies and competition law regimes of several of the most important Asian economies. The book also discusses the impact of these political economy influences in determining whether the adopted competition policy is effective. Each of the authors experts in their respective countries offer specific insights into the nature and structure of their competition regimes and discuss to what extent the varied political economy factors unique to that country help to determine whether and to what extent the established system promotes or hinders economic competition in that jurisdiction. Comprising wide coverage of Asian jurisdictions, including Australia, this book will strongly appeal to students and academics of law, politics, economics and economic development, policy makers in national governments, international agencies and competition authorities, as well as practicing competition lawyers and in-house counsel.

Since the failure of the Havana Charter in 1947 till the success of the combined efforts of leading antitrust authorities against mighty Microsoft, the antitrust regime has witnessed several ups and downs. Auf jeden Fall the journey was not an easy one. Moreover now antitrust regime is standing at international crossroads and is wondering about its future direction. Today, at this crucial juncture the antitrust world is confronted with several dilemmas simultaneously. Choices are to be made between national welfare or global welfare, national autonomy or global regulations, the efficiency factor or the fairness view, national champions or global champions, collective efficiency or collective inefficiency, WTO or ICN, the US model or the EU model and so on. It is widely believed among experts that to overcome these dilemmas, the world needs some truly unified international antitrust framework, which would enable the international community to achieve optimal product mix incorporating the best from all options and through such optimal product mix the global community can enjoy to a large extent advantages that competition policy has to offer. In this direction I have examined the feasibility and viability of unifying international competition policy in this work. Additionally, as the title suggests I have listed out advantages and disadvantages of such moves. Efforts for harmonization of competition laws began as early as in 1948. Till date there are several binding and non-binding arrangements made in the direction of harmonization. The WTO and the EU for effective coordination in antitrust area have launched recently new initiatives. International Competition Network, a forum for active interaction among antitrust officials, even though non-binding in nature is doing considerably good work. I believe such confidence building initiatives among nations would help in arriving at some amicable solutions, agreeable to all nations. Chapter 8 focuses on various such initiatives taken in the direction of harmonization. In the concluding chapter, I elaborate further on need of having a unified antitrust regime under a contemporary scenario. Recommendations and views of experts are also presented. At the end I discuss my views about feasibility of having a truly unified antitrust regime in foreseeable future and other possible alternative measures that might help in achieving harmonization in future.

In its own words, the mission of the International Competition Network (the ICN) is to advocate the adoption of superior standards and procedures in competition policy around the world, formulate proposals for procedural and substantive convergence, and seek to facilitate effective international cooperation to the benefit of member agencies, consumers and economies worldwide. ICN members include nearly all competition authorities (NCAs) from around the world (over 100 of them). Since its inception, the ICN has also sought to enrich its discussions and outputs through the inclusion of non-governmental advisors (NGAs), principally large multi-nationals and the legal and economic professions. The ICN is a transnational network, set up by its members, largely without wider state input. This book hypothesises that the ICN's formally neutral structures provide powerful influence mechanisms for strong NCAs and NGAs, over the weak; and 'competition experts' over wider state interests, discussing the legitimacy of this from a political and legal theory perspective, analysing the ICN's effectiveness and efficiency, and suggesting ways that the ICN can improve all three. This study has important implications for the ICN itself, particularly as it launches its 'Third Decade Project', billed as a full self-evaluation. However, the story told here is also relevant to states and the wider regulatory community, due to the widespread use of transnational networks.

As national competition laws proliferate and enforcement efforts increase, the international competition law system is increasingly beset with conflicts between States with competing interests. This book explores ways to reduce conflicts, contending that an international competition law system is evolving.

This collection of more than two dozen papers delivered to a symposium on International Harmonization of Competition Laws examines the policies and practices of competition laws in major industrial jurisdictions and emerging industrialized economies such as the host country of the Symposium, the Republic of China on Taiwan. World class scholars and leading enforcement officials contributed to this volume, which examines the difficult issues of harmonizing competition laws. In addition to enhancing the scholarship on a topic of current interest after the Uruguay Round of GATT talks, the book also systematically examines topical issues in competition laws. It thus not only offers policy analysis, but also provides useful discussions of national and regional competition laws. A useful tool on comparative competition laws, this volume should be of interest to academics, practitioners and enforcement officials around the world.

The book deals with a difficult subject with an assured touch and will be a valuable text for postgraduate students, policy-makers and practitioners. European Intellectual Property Review This is the first ever book that addresses the important issue of the competition law, intellectual property and trade interface in a developing world context. The book s unique contribution is a set of comparative case studies on this complex interface. D. Daniel Sokol, University of Florida Levin College of Law, US The book investigates competition law and international technology transfer in the light of the TRIPS Agreement and the experience of both developed and developing countries. On that basis, it draws relevant implications for developing countries. Tu Thanh Nguyen argues that technology transfer-related competition law should be glocalized appropriately for the needs of local contexts, while intellectual property rights (IPR) are globalized. The book reveals that developing countries, according to the TRIPS Agreement, have the right to use domestic competition law to promote access to technology in order to protect national interests and consumer welfare. However, competition law is antitrust. It is neither anti-IPR nor anti-trade. The author finds that developing countries with limited competition law resources should set realistic priorities for the control of technology transfer-related anti-competitive practices. They can reasonably apply and adapt relevant regulations, decisions and judgments from developed country jurisdictions to their own circumstances. Competition Law, Technology Transfer and the TRIPs Agreement is a timely resource for postgraduate students, practitioners, and scholars in international competition law, IPR, and technology transfer. Policymakers in the field of technology transfer-related competition law/policy, especially in developing countries, will also find this book invaluable.