Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Tesauro, Giuseppe --- "The Evolution of European Competition Law and the Italian Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato" [2006] ELECD 300; 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 4

Section Title: The Evolution of European Competition Law and the Italian Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato

Author(s): Tesauro, Giuseppe

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

4. The evolution of European competition
law and the Italian Autorità Garante
della Concorrenza e del Mercato
Giuseppe Tesauro*

I INTRODUCTION
The two turning points in the recent evolution of competition law are clearly
the reform of the enforcement system of the Community law regarding agree-
ments and abuse of dominant positions (the so-called modernization), and the
reform concerning mergers. The modernization reform significantly affects
the relationship between national and European enforcers of European law;
both reforms have a bearing on the relationship between national and
European competition laws. The merger reform also deals with a substantive
issue, namely the standard of evaluation.
I would like to briefly recall the main characteristics of both reforms, from
the perspective of national competition authorities (NCAs), and to underline
some critical points. I will then make a few concluding remarks specifically
focused on the impact of the reforms on the activity of the Italian Antitrust
Authority.


II THE MODERNIZATION REFORM
Regulation 1/2003 sets out an extremely innovative reform of the enforcement
system of Community rules relating to agreements and the abuse of a dominant
position. The aim of the reform is to enable the Commission to concentrate on
the most important cases and to implement a significant decentralization of the
application of European competition law.
The four qualifying points of the reform are: the reduction of the enforcement


* Presidente Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (retired),
Professor at Università La Sapienza, Roma. The format of a free speech has been ...