DG COMP Reform: An assessment

In 2003 and 2004, the European Commission made a series of significant reforms both to Community competition law and DG Competition. The legislative reforms were accompanied by equally far-reaching internal reforms to the organisation and procedures within DG Competition. This set of three articles (the first in French, the two others in English) assesses the reforms two years after: the first author, now Chief Economist at DGCCRF - French NCA - was a member of the first chief economist team; the second author, member of the Brussels Bar, delivers a practitioner’s point of view after more than 30 years dealing with the EC Commission; the last authors are economists, both practitioners and academics and review the DG COMP reform; They note that the application of economic principles as well as the use of economic and econometric evidence in competition policy cases entail some risks. They call for more guidance to those involved in the generation of economic evidence for use in competition policy cases.