The «automatic» anticompetitive agreement

KEYWORDS

The «automatic’’ anticompetitive agreement is the counterpart of the notion of automatic abuse brought out by the Court of Justice and EC Commission. This notion deals with the control of the normative activity of the State with regard to competition law based on the useful effect of Community law.

The recognition of this notion will enable to apprehend situations in which the observance of the legal or regulatory texts would lead to situations of illegal agreements or concerted practices.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which the recent developments of EC and domestic case law provide elements of qualification and of sanction of situations in which legal or regulatory texts would lead to situations of anticompetitive agreements or concerted practices.

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. 1. The concept of "automatic agreement" covers situations in which the existence of legislative or regulatory acts would necessarily give rise to situations of agreements or concerted [1]practices. This concept is part of the control of the normative activity of States with regard to competition law. The principle of such control by the Court of Justice of the European Communities, based on the effectiveness of Community law, dates back to the 1970s, but its scope has long remained limited. The completion of the internal market at European level, followed by the progressive integration of Community law into the legality block at national level, has allowed

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