Competition policy newsletter

European Commission Directorate-General For Competition

Description

Number 1, 2009
Competition policy
Target audience: Specialised/Technical

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-COMPETITION
• Nombre de lectures: 35
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Competition Policy Newsletter 2010 > NUMBER 1
KD-AB-09-001-3A-C
ISSN 1025-2266
European Commission
Competition
COMPETITION POLICY
Competition Policy Newsletter NEWSLETTER
Published three times a year by the Competition
Directorate-General of the European Commission
Editors: Julia Brockhoff, Isabelle Krauss, Alexander Winterstein
2010 > NUMBER 1
Address:
European Commission
Competition Directorate-General
Communications Policy and Inter-Institutional Relations
1049 Bruxelles/Brussel
BELGIQUE / BELGIË
E-mail: [e-mail]
Covering
1 September to 31 December 2009Subscriptions and previous issues:
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/publications/cpn/
Inside:
• Retrospective article about the crisis by Commissioner
Neelie Kroes p. 3
• The Commission’s decision in the Microsoft Internet
Explorer cases and recent developments in the area of
interoperability p. 37
• The Online Commerce Roundtable p. 46
And main developments on
Antitrust - Cartels - Merger control - State aid control
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/publications/The Competition Policy Newsletter contains information on EU competition policy and cases.
Articles are written by staff of the Competition Directorate-General of the European Commission. How to obtain EU publications
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Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2010
© European Union, 2010
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European CommissionContents
Articles
3 Retrospective article about the crisis
by Commissioner Neelie Kroes
8 Commission adopts new block exemption regulation for liner shipping consortia
by Antje Prisker
13 The state of ECN leniency convergence
by Vita Juknevičiūtė and Jeroen Capiau
16 State aid for training: criteria for compatibility analysis in notifiable cases
by Juergen Foecking and Justyna Majcher-Williams
20 State aid for disabled and disadvantaged workers: compatibility criteria for big cases
by Justyna Majcher-Williams and Juergen Foecking
Antitrust
23 European Court of Justice confirms Commission’s approach on parental liability
by Frederique Wenner and Bertus Van Barlingen
28 Clearstream: General Court confirms Commission Decision
by Rosalind Bufton and Eduardo Martínez Rivero
32 Patent ambush in standard-setting:
the Commission accepts commitments from Rambus to lower memory chip royalty rates
by Ruben Schellingerhout and Piero Cavicchi
37 The Commission’s decision in the Microsoft
Internet Explorer case and recent developments in the area of interoperability
by Carl-Christian Buhr, Friedrich Wenzel Bulst, Jeanne Foucault and Thomas Kramler
41 Commitment decision in the ship classification case: Paving the way for more competition
by Rüdiger Doms and Piergiorgio Rieder
46 The Online Commerce Roundtable —
Advocating improved access to online music for EU consumers
by Carlo Alberto Toffolon
Cartels
51 The heat stabilisers cartels
by Patricie Eliasova, Josefine Hederström, Willibrord Janssen and Eline Post
Mergers
53 Merger: main developments between 1 September and 31 December 2009
by John Gatti
56 EDF/Segebel
by Pablo Asbo, Raphaël De Coninck, Cyril Hariton,
Krisztian Kecsmar, Polyvios Panayides and Augustijn Van Haasteren
60 Merger Case M.5421 Panasonic/Sanyo – Batteries included or ‘lost in translation?’
by Rita Devai, Tobias P. Maass, Dimitrios Magos and Robert ThomasState aid
65 State aid: main developments between 1 September and 31 December 2009
by Koen Van de Casteele
74 Restructuring package for Northern Rock
by Živilė Didžiokaitė and Minke Gort
78 EU-Korea FTA: a new frontier for a global level playing field in subsidies control
by Anna Jarosz-Friis, Nicola Pesaresi and Clemens Kerle
81 The German Law to Modernise the General Conditions for Capital Investments (MoRaKG)
by Zajzon Bodó, Torsten Peters and Albert Rädler
Information section
84 Organigram of the Competition Directorate-General
85 Documents
•  Speeches•  Press releases and memos
•  Publications
95 Competition cases covered in this issueARTICLES
Competition Policy Newsletter
Competition policy and the crisis –
the Commission’s approach to banking and beyond.
1Commissioner Neelie Kroes ( )
While the crisis has been an extended one and re- made in a highly politically pressured environment,
covery from it uneven, one of the few positive the sort that is not normally conducive to lasting
things we can take away from the experience is the and effective policy making.
1general maintenance of competitive markets.
Together the various European Institutions have
Unlike the Great Depression, and in defiance of done much to increase confidence, deliver stability
many vocal opponents, competition in Europe re- and generate more economic activity – whether via
main largely unaltered by what are, by comparison, the direct stimulus of the European Economic Re-
massive crisis policy measures. This is not to say that covery Plan or via new state aid possibilities under
there are not threats to competition, and nor is it to the Temporary Framework for State Aid. Specif-
pretend that financial sector aid especially has had ically, I am pleased to conclude that the Directorate-
no impact on the affected markets. However, there General for Competition stepped up to the mark
is strong support for the view that the competition as part of wider Commission efforts to minimise
policy architecture needs to be maintained. Support- the impact of the crisis, even if that meant working
ers of the view that competition breeds competitive- round the clock and in temporary offices in ship-
ness, and that European consumers and businesses ping containers for large parts of 2008-9.
benefit from a level playing field, have effectively
won the argument. Early stages of the crisis
Competition policy may not be loved by all govern- My services and I were fortunate – if that is the
ments and competitors, but the need for it to act as word – to have been involved from a very early stage
the backbone of the EU Single Market remains sub- in dealing with the crisis. Our first awareness of the
stantially unchallenged. And so, while we can never problems to come came with the difficulties of
drop our defences against protectionism, we can de- Northern Rock and several of the German Landes-
clare that that competition policy and competition banken in 2007. This entrée into the risky behav-
enforcers played an important role in avoiding far iours and stubborn defiance of the sector helped us
worse outcomes from this crisis. to ready us for massive influx of aid demands that
flooded in after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in Indeed, the case for a continuing level playing field
September 2008.in Europe is stronger than ever. In this article I hope
to outline my perspective on why this outcome has Knowing that banks in other Member States were been achieved, and discuss in some detail the mech- likely to face problems at some point, and knowing anisms and politics that have been called upon to also that the situation would be quite different from get us there. Dealing with the crisis, it must also Member State to Member State, we were left with be noted, has been about more than one element the clear impression that there would need to be of state aid (bankin