*** HILA NEVO: Definition of the Relevant Market. (Lack of) Harmony between Industrial Economics and Competition Law. Intersentia (31 Groenstraat, B-2640 Mortsel. Tel: (32-3) 6801550 - Email: mail@intersentia.be - Internet: http://www.intersentia.com ). “European Studies in Law and Economics” series, No. 9. 2015, 277 pp. €60, £43.62, $91.66. ISBN 978-1-78068-137-5.
Over the past 20 years, European competition policy has been characterised by an increasing taking into account of the different economic analyses available. No other field of law has been subject to as many economic considerations, points out Hila Nevo in her introductory chapter. As a lecturer in this combination of subjects at the University of Haifa, she immediately points out the main phases that have marked this evolution, with the beginning in 1997 when the Commission promulgated its Notice on the definition of the relevant market, which attempted to reformulate the market definition exercise in economic as well as empirical terms. In this connection, this involved a serious about turn because the Commission had hitherto been promoting objectives such as market integration, the protection of consumer welfare through low prices, efficiency savings and the promotion of innovation and protection of small competitors and previously tended to neglect economic analyses or not afford them a priority. This was in fact so serious that it was criticised by the European Court of Justice in three different cases (Airtours, Schneider/Legrand, Tetra Laval), which ruled that it had not appropriately proved the economic theories based on its decisions. In addition to this, the fact that globalisation increasingly compelled the Commission to cooperate with other bodies in charge of ensuring healthy competition, particularly the Americans, we can see the reasons why at the time of Mario Monti, we witnessed European competition policy opening up more to the economists.
The definition of the market began to play a crucially central role in the Commission' competition policy and often became the "centrepiece of any investigation into the nature of competition in a given industry". This process effectively seeks to identify a small group of products for which, in a specific geographical area, a business is able to increase its prices without fearing any genuine competition. This explains the need to provide accurate and sophisticated quantification instruments to decide, for example, on the products and the geographical area covered by the market in question. This is done to evaluate market concentration and market share but also to define the price increases resulting from a specific merger. All these questions and many more require Commission economists to provide the required pertinent answers, which have, nonetheless, provoked few doubts in certain quarters. This book sets out to verify whether their responses are well founded. In the first part of his book, Hila Nevo looks at the economic foundations of European competition law and closely scrutinises the indicators of market power. She then examines the practice of demarcating appropriate markets in European law, in light of the methodology developed in the US. She subsequently and meticulously assesses the different empirical techniques proposed and provides a comprehensive account of nearly all quantitative methods utilised both in and outside the EU, to allow antitrust practitioners a thorough consideration of the economic tools available nowadays for defining antitrust markets. Finally, the author looks at the question of whether European legal practice for competition really does constitute a decision-making process that complies with the economic perspectives illustrated in the previous chapters. As the subtitle of the book clearly suggests, her response is solidly constructed on the basis of a selection of decisions taken by the Commission but is, nonetheless, cautious in this respect…
Pierre Bouvier
*** JEAN-FRANCOIS BELLIS: Droit européen de la concurrence. Editions Bruylant (Groupe Larcier, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-10) 482511 - fax: 482519 - Email: commande@larciergroup.com - Internet: http://www.larciergroup.com ). "Concurrences" series. 2014, 349 pp. €75. ISBN 978-2-8027-3789-6.
Jean-François Bellis is a lawyer specialising in European competition law. In this publication he provides the entirety of his course notes on this subject for the past 15 years at the European Studies Institute at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He provides an overview of the rules applicable, a look at the basic principles and scope for this law, the procedures contained within it, Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union, cartels and other illegal horizontal "understandings", vertical agreements, copyright licenses, supervision of mergers and the way in which member states have positioned themselves in the context of this law. In his preliminary remarks, the author confirms that modernisation of this policy has led the Commission to promote a more economics-oriented approach, which has further strengthened this policy.
(MT)
*** SARAH SCHOENMAEKERS, WOUTER DEVROE, NIELS PHILIPSEN (Editors): State Aid and Public Procurement in the European Union. Intersentia (see address attached). « Ius Commune Europaeum » series, No. 131. 2014, 151 pp. €45, £32.88, $50.50. ISBN 978-1-78068-274-7.
This book brings together a number of essays from academic experts and practitioners, legal experts and economists who contributed to a Masters course developed at the University of Maastricht on the subject of state aid and public procurement. It also contains the speeches made during the two conferences organised on this theme. These very high level contributions clarify the different areas of the situation in these two legal areas, as well as the ties that unite them in a context of the deepening of the internal market in which all market distortion would be prohibited. The different individuals contributing to the book tackle a variety of subjects such as the modernisation of the rules on state aid and the way in which tax cases affect the definition of them, their ex post evaluation, the way in which services of general economic interest are approached and how this has evolved in the context of the Union. This has always been a sensitive question when compensation for supplementary costs is involved, which require public service obligations. The package seeks to "green" public procurement and other policies and this publication provides both a comprehensive and thoroughgoing insight into these areas.
(PBo)
*** PHILIPP KIIVER, JAKUB KODYM: The Practice of Public Procurement. Tendering, Selection and Award. Intersentia (see address attached). 2014, 156 pp. €45, £32.73, $50.01. ISBN 978-1-78068-266-2.
How can a public procurement practice tendering process be simple, fair and attractive? How can the body in charge of the call for tenders decide that the selection criteria are appropriate? How can a realistic price list be devised? How can the criteria for allocating a contract be decided that ensures that the money spent is done so as efficiently as possible? These are some of the questions the need to be asked when launching a call for tender in the public procurement market field at local, regional, national, EU or international levels. It is in an effort to provide some answers to these questions and ensure that the call for tender process is blemish free that this practical guide has been devised by two specialists, both of whom have the benefit of working in the European Parliament in the service responsible for public procurement. The two authors drew on their knowledge of the law, political science and economics gained at university, to devise this guide, which takes into account the EU public procurement directive 2014, as well as the appropriate case law at the European Court of Justice. Throughout this publication there is a focus on the economic dimension of public buying and emphasis on the different public procurement practitioners (those in charge of drafting the call for tenders, supervisors, assessors, the decision-makers authorising public spending, et cetera). They are not simply officials but also part of the market transaction and their chief mission is to ensure that taxpayers' money is spent as judiciously as possible. The authors point out that, " A procurement officer who forgets that he or she is handling public affairs risks getting entangled in private interests; an officer who forgets that he or she is also a market participant may become too bureaucratic over the years". They conclude that, " good procurement means that we are serving the public interest, and that we do this in a frank, transparent and straightforward way, leading to fair and efficient awards of public contracts". The publication contains a number of annexes focusing on the assessment of the economic viability of companies and the formulas to determine price-quality ratios, which the entire book seeks to subsequently clarify.
(PBo)
*** MALGORZATA SADOWSKA: Committed to Reform? Pragmatic Antitrust Enforcement in Electricity. Intersentia (see address attached). European Studies in Law and Economics series, No. 15. 2014, 252 pp. €74, £54.38, $83.39. ISBN 978-1-78068-250-1.
When a firm working in the energy field is suspected by the European Commission of practices that do not respect the rules of healthy competition, the latter might decide to adopt an attitude that gives the benefit of the doubt. In this book, the author, a researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, examines what appears to be the Commission's primary objective, namely, promoting the single energy market rather than the fight against unfair competition. The author is also the scientific coordinator of the energy law sector at the Florence School of Regulation and in this book she focuses on the energy sector, as the objectives sought by the Union in this arena are clearly defined and the Commission often tends to prioritise energy objectives in this field. Her book helps to build a theoretical understanding, as well as an understanding of the energy regulatory policies in the Union. The responses are well argued particularly when it comes to tackling the question of whether this particular use of competition rules really does promote energy market integration.
(HHe)
*** CHARLOTTE FOURCROY: Services et environnement. Les enjeux énergétiques de l'innovation dans les services. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Business & Innovation" series, No. 10. 2014, 209 pp. €46. ISBN 978-2-87574-191-2.
This book is largely based on a Ph.D. thesis in which the economist, Charlotte Fourcroy, seeks to analyse the huge impact of the service sector on energy consumption. Although services can be interpreted as immaterial by certain commentators, others argue that they only exercise a minor pressure on the environment, it cannot be contested that this sector has experienced high-energy consumption growth. At an international level there are countries, such as France, which are operating more at tertiary level and which consume more per capita energy. It is on the basis of this observation that the author develops her analysis. In the first part of the book she looks at the material question whilst tackling methodological difficulties created by the question of the sector's energy consumption. The second part of the book explores the question of innovation in the services sector and its subsequent repercussions on energy. The author bases her observations on an empirical investigation focusing on the hospitality and food distribution sectors, both of which have been particularly affected by the question of energy transition.
(CDe)
*** GRIGORIS TSALTAS: Les défis modernes et les perspectives d'exploitation des ressources énergétiques sous-marines. Editions Sideris (116 rue Solonos, GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3833434 - fax: 3832294 - email: contact@isideris.gr). 2015, 506 pp. €28. ISBN 978-960-08-0643-4.
In this book, this professor of international law and president of the European Legal Studies Department at Pantheon University in Athens, where he is also the rector, gets to grips with a number of issues that have been raised over the past five years. These issues have been provoked by the controversy surrounding the need for an immediate proclamation for an exclusive economic area for Greece. This has created a flourishing of sometimes unfounded scientific beliefs and unhealthy motives regarding under the sea oil reserves and the public subsequently being kept in a state of total confusion. In the current situation, Greece is unable to effectively exploit its natural resources under the sea because of the much argued theory that the absence of an exclusive economic area means that the country does not have the right to do so. Nevertheless, the different political groups have torn themselves apart on this issue and the different motives (including those at the most senior levels) are extremely suspect because originally a kind of national consensus existed on this question. Since 1973, Turkey has been formulating unilateral and totally arbitrary demands to be able to exploit the continental plateau in the northern Aegean Sea. At the time, all the different Greek political forces supported the national position whereby Greece, in compliance with international maritime law, should have its own continental plateau around its islands. It was at the time, therefore, incontestable that Turkey would agree to ensuring demarcation of the continental plateau between the two neighbouring countries in the Aegean Sea. Obviously, this matter is extremely complex …
(AKa)