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Buigues, Pierre A. --- "The competition policy approach" [2004] ELECD 47; in Buigues, A. Pierre; Rey, Patrick (eds), "The Economics of Antitrust and Regulation in Telecommunications" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004)

Book Title: The Economics of Antitrust and Regulation in Telecommunications

Editor(s): Buigues, A. Pierre; Rey, Patrick

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843765103

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: The competition policy approach

Author(s): Buigues, Pierre A.

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

2. The competition policy approach
Pierre A. Buigues1

1. INTRODUCTION
One of the most important recent developments in the telecoms sector in the EU has been
the adoption of the new regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and
services, which should be transposed by Member States into national law by mid-2003. The
aim of this chapter is to contribute to the open debate in Europe about this new regulatory
framework, which is a major step in the process of liberalization of the telecommunications
industry, itself a major sector of the EU economy, and to discuss in some more detail the
competition-law aspects of this new regulatory framework. The chapter is structured as
follows. Following this short introduction, the lessons of the `old' regulatory framework are
presented, with particular focus on the European Commission's conclusions set out in the
1999 Review, and the results of the Implementation Reports, where the Commission has
each year examined the transposition and the implementation of the directives when incor-
porated into national law. The chapter then focuses on the analysis of the different components
of the new regulatory environment and tries to give preliminary answers to the main critical
questions surrounding the new regulatory regime: first, the markets to be regulated (fewer or
more markets to be regulated?), second, the designation of significant market power oper-
ators (fewer or more operators to be regulated?), third, the remedies to be imposed on
operators by regulators (more strict or more lenient?), and, fourth, the ...