Implementation of US Antitrust under the G. W. Bush Administration (2001-2005)

This paper is an assessment in a transatlantic perspective of the main evolutions of the first G.W. Bush administration (2001-2005). It is chiefly based on direct sources, papers and articles issued by the chief executives at the Antitrust Division of the US DOJ and the US FTC. At the beginning of their tenure, the FTC executives have insisted more on the continuity of their actions with regard to the previous Democrat leadership of their Agency, although in a context of reduction of the scope of antitrust exemptions (sector exemptions and state action). In their turn, the executives at the DOJ’s Antitrust Division have chosen to emphasize their differences of views with the EU Commission, rather than with their Democrat predecessors, on two areas where, by tradition, Republicans and Democrats have been split, namely merger control objectives and unilateral conducts treatment (monopolization and abuse of dominance). Over their period of tenure, Antitrust Division Execs have acknowledged positive evolutions on the part of the EC, namely in the international cartel treatment and sentencing, merger control standards and the improvement of the use of economics in EU antitrust analysis. On a remaining issue, namely unilateral conducts treatment, they still call for the same type of convergence with US Law. Ultimately the paper raises questions about the development of a policy option debate in the European Union on Competition issues.