Audio
PresentationsFrédéric Jenny : Three main periods can be identified with respect to competition law and policy in the past quarter-century.
In the 90s, competition laws were adopted in many jurisdictions in a context of commercial liberalization. International negotiations were carried out to remove governmenta barriers to transnational trade and investment flows ; concerns raised over competition issues in global markets. Also, bilateral and multilateral agreements including provisions for the protection of competition were signed.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the globalization of markets resulted in economic integration but also legal fragmentation. It raised issues of convergence between legal regimes and systems as well as issues of cooperation between the authorities acting in different jurisdictions. Convergence has resulted especially from the increasing use of economics for the purpose of interpreting and applying competition law. However, convergence has not been fully achieved. Differences remains with respect to the scope of competition law (e.g. whether competition law should include state aids, deal with excessive pricing, etc. and whether public interests should be considered in competition assessment). Regarding cooperation, the authorities increasingly work together on multijurisdictional cases and coordinate their actions with respect to remedies.