Langues appliquées - Anglais : Economie, gestion, droit, AES - 4e - 212

law

Instructions For Study
1. Turn to the definitions following the text Competition Law. They refer to the specialist
terms printed in bold type in the list of Useful words and concepts.
2. Use an English language dictionary to find the meanings (in context) of the other words in
the list.
3. Do the exercises to test your language skills.

Competition Law
As a general proposition competition law consists of rules that are intended to protect the process
of competition in order to maximise consumer welfare. Competition law has grown at a phenomenal
rate in recent years in response to the enormous changes in political thinking and economic behaviour
that have taken place around the world. There are now more than 130 systems of competition law in the
world, which reflects the growing belief that competitive markets are beneficial for consumer welfare.
A central concern of competition law and policy is that a firm or firms with market power are able,
in various ways, to harm consumer welfare, for example by reducing output, raising prices, degrading
the quality of products on the market, suppressing innovation and depriving consumers of choice.
These concerns cannot be expressed in a codified table of rules capable of precise application in the
way, for example, that laws on taxation or the relationship of landlord and tenant can. The analysis
of competition issues invariably requires an assessment of market power, and such an assessment
cannot be conducted without an understanding of the economic concepts involved. The same is true
of the types of behaviour - for example cartelisation, predatory pricing, discrimination, mergers - with
which competition law is concerned. These are not matters that can simply be analysed in a rule-based
way. Competition law is about the economic analysis of markets within a legal process; each case will
depend on its own circumstances but will often require both legal and economic input.
What issues is competition law concerned with in particular?
Anti-competitive agreements
These are agreements that have as their object or effect the restriction of competition. They are
unlawful unless they have some redeeming virtue such as the enhancement of economic efficiency. An
example would be a cartel agreement between competitors, for example to fix prices, to share markets
or to restrict output - often referred to as horizontal agreements. Another example would be if a firm
puts out for competitive tender and those who respond rig their bids by way of cover pricing - such
bid rigging involves collusion between parties that should be in competition with each other, with the
lowest bidder effectively facing no real competition at all. Such agreements are severely punished, and
in some systems of law can even lead to the imprisonment of the individuals responsible for them. In
the UK a company director may be disqualified from holding a company directorship for up to fifteen
years or given a custodial sentence of up to five years; and a company may be fined up to ten per-cent
of its annual worldwide turnover. Agreements between firms at different levels of the market - known
as vertical agreements - may also be unlawful when they could be harmful to competition: an example
would be where a supplier of goods instructs its retailers not to resell them at less than a certain price,
a practice often referred to as resale price maintenance. As a general proposition, vertical agreements
are much less likely to harm competition than horizontal ones.

Table des matières de la publication Langues appliquées - Anglais : Economie, gestion, droit, AES - 4e