PART 1 INTRODUCTION 1
PART 2 NATIONAL LAWS OF MONOPOLY 9
U.S.A. 11
1. Summary of Antitrust Laws 11
1.1 Outline of the Substantive Provisions 11
2. Sherman Act, Section 1 14
2.1 Concerted Action 14
2.2 Intracorporate Conspiracies 15
2.3 Conscious Parallelism 17
2.4 Effect of Withdrawal from Concerted Action Conspiracies 18
2.5 The Requirement for an Effect upon Trade or Commerce 19
2.6 Per Se Unlawfulness and the Rule of Reason 24
2.7 The Application of Section 1 to Particular Restraints 27
2.7.1 Price-fixing Arrangements and Vertical Price Discrimination 27
2.7.2 Division of Markets or Customers 38
2.7.3 Boycotts and Refusals to Deal 43
2.7.4 Reciprocal Practices 45
2.7.5 Tie-ins and Exclusive Contracts 46
2.7.6 Industrial Property Licensing 58
2.7.7 Other Restraints 63
2.8 Standing and Antitrust Injury 63
3. Sherman Act, Section 2 65
4. The Clayton Act 66
4.1 Clayton Act—Introduction 66
4.2 Section 3—Exclusionary Arrangements 67
4.2.1 Exclusive Dealing Contracts 70
4.2.2 Requirements Contracts 71
4.2.3 Tying Arrangements 72
4.3 The Anti-Competitive Effect 75
5. The Federal Trade Commission Act 77
5.1 Introduction 77
5.2 Jurisdictional Requirements 78
5.3 Unfair Methods of Competition 79
5.4 Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices 81
6. The Robinson-Patman Act 83
6.1 Introduction 83
6.2 Jurisdictional Requirements 84
6.3 The Requirement of Competitive Injury 92
6.4 Statutory Defences to a Robinson-Patman Act Violation 95
7. Monopolisation and Attempts to Monopolise 99
7.1 Introduction 99
7.2 Actual Monopolisation 101
7.3 Attempts to Monopolise 122
7.3.1 Introduction 122
7.3.2 The Dangerous Probability Requirement 123
7.3.3 The Relevant Market 127
7.3.4 Specific Intent to Monopolise 129
7.4 Monopolies and Attempts by a Plurality of Firms and Conspiracies to Monopolise 130
8. Mergers 134
8.1 Introduction 134
8.2 The Requirement for Pre-notification of Mergers 140
8.3 Merger Evaluation 142
8.3.1 The Relevant Market: The Product Market 142
8.3.2 The Relevant Market: The Geographic Market 150
8.3.3 The Substantive Criteria for Merger Evaluation 152
9. Interlocking Directorates 176
10. Joint ventures 179
11. Jurisdictional Aspects 188
EEC 195
1. Summary of Competition Laws 195
1.1 Introduction to EEC Competition Laws 195
1.1.1 Community Law and National Law 195
1.1.2 Overview of the Treaties 197
1.1.3 The Principal Competition Provisions 198
1.1.4 Interaction between Competition Provisions 202
2. Article 85— Introduction 205
2.1 Agreements, Decisions and Concerted Practices 207
2.2 Undertakings, Associations of Undertakings 211
2.3 Effect on Trade between Member States 212
2.4 The Anti-competitive Effect 214
2.5 Effect on Foreign Trade 217
2.6 Application of Article 85(1) to Particular Types of Agreement 220
2.6.1 Horizontal Agreements 221
2.6.2 Vertical Agreements 236
2.6.3 Other permitted Forms of Co-operation 265
3. Crisis Cartels 296
4. Joint ventures 302
4.1 General 302
4.2 Treatment of Joint Ventures under Articles 85 and 86 304
4.2.1 Commission Treatment of Joint Ventures, 1968-1980 304
4.2.2 Recent Decisions on Manufacturing Joint Ventures 309
4.2.3 Joint Venture for Component and Know-how Supply 314
4.2.4 Distribution Joint Ventures 315
4.2.5 Specialisation Joint Ventures 316
4.3 Application of Block Exemption Regulations to Particular Joint Ventures 317
4.4 The Irish Distillers Case 317
4.5 Treatment of Joint Ventures under the 1989 Merger Control Regulation 319
5. Article 86—Introduction 321
5.1 The Dominant Position 323
5.2 Abuse of a Dominant Position 335
5.2.1 Refusal to Supply 338
5.2.2 Applying Dissimilar Conditions to Equivalent Transactions 342
5.2.3 Making the Conclusion of Contracts Subject to Acceptance by the other Parties of Supplementary Obligations 344
5.2.4 Limiting Production, Markets or Technical Development to the Prejudice of Consumers 346
5.2.5 Unfair Exploitation 347
5.2.6 Residual Categories of Anti-competitive Conduct 350
6. Mergers 356
6.1 Article 86 and Mergers 356
6.2 Merger Control Regulation 360
6.3 Enforcement under Article 86 in Relation to Mergers 366
7. Intellectual Property and Free Movement in the Common Market 373
GERMANY 382
1. Outline of the Substantive Provisions 382
1.1 Introduction 382
1.2 The Substantive Provisions of the GWB in Summary 383
1.2.1 Prohibition of Cartel Agreements and Cartel Resolutions 383
1.2.2 Exceptions from the Prohibitions of Section 1 386
1.2.3 Prohibition of Anti-competitive Provisions in Vertical Agreements 391
1.2.4 Abusive Practice by Market dominating Enterprises,Discriminatory Conduct and Merger Control 394
1.2.5 Joint ventures 394
2. Control of Abusive Behaviour by Market dominating Enterprises 396
2.1 Introduction 396
2.2 The Definition of a Market dominating Enterprise 397
2.3 Abuse Control under Section 22 401
2.3.1 Abusive Conduct 401
2.3.2 Remedies for Abusive Conduct under Section 22 404
2.4 Specialised Categories of Abusive Conduct 404
2.4.1 Section 25(1): Concerted Conduct to Achieve Unlawful Purpose 404
2.4.2 Section 25(2): Threats, Promises to Induce Unlawful Conduct 405
2.4.3 Section 25(3): Coercion of other Enterprises 405
2.4.4 Section 26(1): Requests for Imposition of Restrictions in the Supply or Purchasing of Goods or Commercial Services 406
2.4.5 Section 26(2): Hindrance and Discrimination by Market dominating and other Enterprises 407
2.4.6 Section 26(3): Inducement of Preferential Terms by Market dominating Enterprises 409
2.4.7 Section 26(4): Exploitation of Market Power that Causes Unfair Hindrance for Competitors 409
2.4.8 Section 26(5): Burden on Firms Caught by Section 26(4)to Rebut the Presumption of Exploitation 409
2.5 Relationship between Abuse Control under Section 22 and Control under Section 26(2), (3) and (4) 410
3. Merger Control 411
3.1 Introduction 411
3.2 Definition of the Term 'Merger' 411
3.3 Mergers Excepted from Control 413
3.3.1 Section 24(8) 413
3.3.2 ECSC Treaty 414
3.4 Notification of Mergers to the Federal Cartel Office 414
3.4.1 Pre-notification 414
3.4.2 Reporting of Consummated Mergers 414
3.4.3 Voluntary Notification of Mergers 415
3.5 Substantive Law of Merger Control 415
3.5.1 Introduction: Creation or Strengthening of a Dominant Market Position 415
3.5.2 Market Definition 415
3.5.3 Market Domination 417
3.5.4 Creation or Strengthening of a Dominant Market Position 419
3.5.5 Balancing of Pro-and Anti-competitive Consequences 424
3.5.6 Powers of the Cartel Authorities under Section 24 425
3.5.7 Powers of the Federal Minister for Economics 426
3.6 The Application of the GWB to International Mergers 427
U.K. 431
1. Introduction 431
1.1 Common Law Prior to 1948 431
1.2 The Main Legislation 1948-1980 434
2. An Outline of the Substantive Provisions 438
2.1 Restrictive Trading Agreements and Arrangements 438
2.1.1 Introduction 438
2.1.2 Restrictive Agreements as to Goods 438
2.1.3 Restrictive Agreements as to Services 446
2.1.4 Information Agreements as to Services 447
2.3.5 Excepted Agreements as to Services 447
2.1.6 General Exceptions 447
2.1.7 The Public Interest Criteria 448
2.1.8 General 451
2.2 Resale Price Maintenance 453
2.2.1 Introduction 453
2.2.2 Collective Resale Price Maintenance 453
2.2.3 Individual Resale Price Maintenance 454
2.2.4 Exemption by the Restrictive Practices Court 456
2.2.5 Enforcement 457
3. Monopolies 458
3.1 General 458
3.2 A Monopoly Situation Qualifying for Investigation 459
3.3 The Monopoly Reference, Investigation and Report 463
3.4 Powers of Minister Following a Report by the Commission 465
3.5 The Public Interest 467
3.5.1 Structural Monopoly and the Public Interest 468
3.5.2 Conduct and Performance 469
4. Merger Control 487
4.1 Introduction 487
4.2 Merger Situations Qualifying for Investigation 488
4.2.1 Definition of the Term 'Merger' 488
4.2.2 Mergers that Qualify for Investigation 489
4.3 The Reference, the Report and Action Following the Report 491
4.4 The Public Interest and Mergers 493
4.4.1 Introduction 493
4.4.2 Effects upon Competition 494
4.4.3 Other Specific Aspects of the Public Interest in Relation to Mergers 506
4.4.4 The Overall Impact of the Public Interest Test 509
5. The Competition Act 512
5.1 Introduction 512
5.2 Procedure 512
5.2.1 OFT Investigation 512
5.2.2 The Competition Reference 514
5.2.3 Orders Consequent on the Report 516
5.3 The Anti-competitive Practice 517
5.3.1 Selective Distribution Systems 517
5.3.2 Foreclosure of the Market to Competitors 518
5.3.3 Refusal to Supply 519
5.3.4 Pricing Policies 521
5.4 Efficiency Audits in the Public Sector 523
Index 525