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Roth, Wulf-Henning --- "Strategic Competition Policy: A Comment on EU Competition Policy" [2006] ELECD 298; in Ullrich, Hanns (ed), "The Evolution of European Competition Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: The Evolution of European Competition Law

Editor(s): Ullrich, Hanns

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845427016

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Strategic Competition Policy: A Comment on EU Competition Policy

Author(s): Roth, Wulf-Henning

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

2. Strategic competition policy: a
comment on EU competition policy
Wulf-Henning Roth*

I INTRODUCTION
The title of this chapter presupposes that the European Union may be on its way
to developing a strategic competition policy ­ perhaps in the way that it has
pursued strategic aims in the application of its antidumping regulations.1 Viewed
from this perspective, the Boeing,2 Honeywell,3 and Microsoft4 cases could be
analysed as examples in which the Commission attempted to fight the market
power of US-American champions on the European market, thereby protecting
European based competitors. Whether and to what extent the Commission has
pursued such a strategic aim could only be verified on the basis of an in-depth
analysis of the decisions taken, and of the perhaps hidden considerations behind
the decisions. This goes beyond what could be done in a comment.
There is another aspect to the topic of `strategic competition policy' that I
would prefer to deal with: in its Communication of April 2004 on `A pro-
active Competition Policy for a Competitive Europe',5 the Commission linked
the reform and enforcement of European competition policy with the `Lisbon
strategy' to make the EU `the world's most competitive and dynamic knowl-
edge-based economy by 2010'. One of the major characteristics of the new
regulatory competition framework that has been set up in the last five years is
the stronger emphasis on economic analysis.6 This characteristic feature raises


* Professor Dr. iur., L.L.M., Rheinische Friedrich- ...