29264 - European and Comparative Antitrust Law

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will have acquired a working knowledge and the analitical tools needed to understand Antitrust law both at the European and National levels. The course will review the historical evolution of European and National Antitrust law and compare it with the U.S. experience so that the students will know in detail the traditional and new approaches used by Law and Economics scholarship in the field of Antitrust law. The theoretical knowledge will be complemented with the analysis of case law in order to provide a comprenhensive view on the field.

Course contents

1. Introduction to Antitrust Law: origins of US antitrust law. European competition law rules and national rules. Classical anticompetitive corporate conducts: agreements, abuse of dominant position and M&A. Basic notions of economic theory: perfect competition, oligopoly, monopoly and welfare theory.
2. Institutional overview of Antitrust law: independent authorities and networks. The division of competences between the European Commission and national agencies. Regulation no. 1/2003. Antitrust and free movement of goods. Parallel imports.
   
3. Institutional overview of Antitrust law: private enforcement of competition law and the role of Courts. the U.S. experience confronted with European and Italian case law. The European Commission consultation. Antitrust law and unfair competition compared.
4. Institutional overview of Antitrust law: procedural rules before the Italian Antitrust Agency. The balancing between antitrust and IP rights.
5. Agreement and concerted actions: the legal treatment of exclusive clauses, tie-in, vertical restraints and their economics analysis. The de minimis Notice. Block exemptions Regulations and related case law. 
6. Section 1 of the Sherman Act: analysis of corporate conducts included in the provision; indexes that reveal the presence of a horizontal restriction of competition. US case law.
7. Vertical Agreements: individual exemption and Block exemption Reg. n. 2790/09. The current policy about anticompetitive agreements: monitoring instruments and leniency policy. 
8. Abuse of dominant position and Monopolisation. Section 2 of the Sherman Act and the intentional element of monopolisation: case law. The European and the Italian perspectives. Collective dominance: origins, development, economic theory, recent case law. Abuse of IP rights: Magill and IMS cases. The essential facilities doctrine: origins, evolution and leading cases in US, with special attention to cases of liberalisation. 
9. Mergers: discipline; difference with anticompetitive agreeements. Definition of 'merger' in Reg. no. 139/2004 and in the Italian law. Section 7 of the Clayton Act: origins and developments of US legislation; notification of mergers to the European Commission. Calculating market concentration. Efficiency and compensatory measures. 
10. Analysis of the criteria introduced by the new Reg. no. 139/2004, as compared to Reg. no. 4064/89. First application of the new Regulation. The oligopolistic dominant position: problems and leading cases in EU. Vertical and conglomerate mergers: network effects, first mover and portfolio theory. Discipline of common enterprises. The US Merger Guidelines and the failing firm defence in the US and in the EU. Remedies.

Readings/Bibliography

Aurelio Pappalardo, Il diritto comunitario della concorrenza, UTET, Torino, 2007.

 The textbook will be integrated with further material regarding the U.S. Antitrust system during the lessons.

Assessment methods

Oral exam.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Lamandini