Competition Law and the Enforcement of Article 102

With incisive and thought-provoking contributions from both leading academics and practitioners, this book addresses in detail the major areas in relation to the Commission Guidance Paper on Applying Article 82 of the EC Treaty (now Article 102). The paper has been at the center of much of the recent debate on antitrust policy in Europe and has generated significant controversy and intense debate. The authors contend that the guidance from the Commission is on the one hand entirely justifiable in its focus on consumer harm in identifying what constitutes an abuse, but that on the other it is not consistent enough in its message, nor indeed does it offer enough structural guidance on the practical application of the approach. The book addresses all of these concerns, considers the reform of article 102, and identifies the challenges inherent in its enforcement, looking for instance at enforcement in certain sectors, such as the high tech sector. The book considers recent seminal antitrust cases such as the Microsoft case to illuminate and better understand abuse of dominance. It brings a line of clarity to often contradictory messages and in so doing provides invaluable practical guidance to enforcers and practitioners alike.

The editors combine the insight of a leading international economist and an experienced antitrust scholar, and the contributions are linked by a common emphasis on a strong economic approach to antitrust enforcement.

Federico Etro is Professor of Economics at the University of Milan, Bicocca, where he teaches Competition Policy. He also teaches Industrial Organization at the University of Edinburgh. He has been working as a consultant for the public and the private sector, for the Ministry of Economy of Italy (Rome) during the II Berlusconi Government, for the Task Force on Competition of the International Chamber of Commerce (Paris), and for international corporations through ECG (Milan), a small company focused on economic consulting. He has published several articles on leading international journals such as American Economic Review, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economic Journal, Rand Journal of Economics, European Competition Journal and others. He obtained a Laurea in Economics from the Catholic University of Milan and specialized at the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard University.

Dr Ioannis Kokkoris is a Reader at the University of Reading in the UK and a Visiting Professor at Bocconi University in Italy. Prior to that he was a Principal Case Officer at the Office of Fair Trading in the UK and an International Consultant on Competition policy for the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is Vice Chairman of the Institute of Studies in Competition Law and Policy and Vice President of the International Thinktank on Innovation and Research. He has published more than 10 books and 40 articles on competition law, regulation, and corporate law. Dr Kokkoris' background combines both law and economics. Kokkoris holds a BA in Economics (Essex, UK) and an MPhil in Economics (Cambridge, UK), as well as an LLM (with distinction Warwick, UK) and a PhD in Competition Law (King's College London, UK) and has conducted research at Harvard Law School.