TRENDS : ECONOMIC CRISIS - COMPETITION POLICY - RETROSPECT REACTION - PRECENDENT CRISES - UNITED STATES / NEW DEAL - ARGENTINIAN 2000 CRISIS - FLEXIBILITY / ADAPTATION - LASTING NEGATIVE IMPACT

Competition policy in times of crisis

MOTS-CLÉS

In the past, times of severe economic crisis regularly led to the weakening of competition policy. In retrospect, this reaction appears to have deepened the crises it was meant to alleviate, at least in the United States at the beginning of the New Deal. This precedent suggests that a backlash against competition policy would be a wrong answer to the current challenges, even though exceptional economic conditions call for flexibility and adaptations. This set of three articles addresses competition policy in times of crisis. Andrea Amelio and Georges Siotis describe the European Commission’s handling of competition cases in the current unusual circumstances. Antoine Winckler and François-Charles Laprévote focus on State aid, and Carlos Winograd tells the story of the long-lasting negative impact of the Argentinian crisis of 2000 on the nascent competition policy.

INTRODUCTION David SPECTOR Chargé de recherches, CNRS Associate Professor, Paris School of Economics 1. Times of severe economic crisis bring about a severe questioning of market mechanisms with unfailing regularity. The Great Depression is the most telling example, as countries, one after another, resorted to protectionist policies, which further aggravated the crisis. However, beyond international trade, the rejection of market mechanisms also affected competition policy. In the country where it could be believed to be most deeply entrenched - the United States - it was briefly reversed by President Roosevelt through the enactment of the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933, until the Supreme Court reversed these policies in 1935 and widespread public resentment against the

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