Political influence on Brazilian antitrust enforcement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Guerra Filho
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Special Weight

Abstract In 2017, Brazil’s president faced impeachment proposals for allegedly receiving money from a businessman in exchange for influencing a decision of the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (Cade), the Brazilian competition authority. But, considering that Cade is an independent agency with a reputation for transparency, how may politicians influence antitrust enforcement? By analysing the responses given to a questionnaire of mine by anonymous former Cade commissioners, as well as other reports related to political influence on the agency and records from Congress, Cade, and other institutions, this article will examine the channels of political influence on Cade. First, I examine channels of democratic control, such as the appointment process. Secondly, by discussing those situations in which politicians approach the agency, I observe that, even in the absence of an explicit promise or threat, contact from politicians bears a special weight for Cade’s officers. I argue that, regardless of conclusive evidence that political contact or pressure has actually impacted Cade’s enforcement, public confidence in the agency might be harmed when there is the appearance that it has done so. Therefore, the appropriateness of increased transparency surrounding meetings between elected politicians and Cade’s officers is a matter for consideration.

Anticompetitive Agreements (2008–2010): Errors of 1 Type in Russian Enforcement

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-107
Author(s):  
Andrey Makarov
Keyword(s):  
Competition Law ◽  
Antitrust Policy ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
Priority Areas ◽  
Rule Of Reason ◽  
Standards Of Proof ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Mixed Agreements

This article analyzes the antitrust enforcement practice in Russia (2008–2010) in the area of competition restricting agreements (horizontal and vertical). The analysis is based on courts decisions database (litigations with the Russian competition authority - FAS). Database contains 242 cases, including 139 horizontal agreements, 103 vertical and mixed agreements. On the basis of this database we have analyzed important features of the interpretation and implementation of the competition law in Russian practice, priority areas of the enforcement. We considered the antitrust policy taking into account the risks of errors of 1 and 2 types, including the problem of the flexibility of prohibitions (PER SE vs RULE OF REASON), standards of proof, consistency of enforcement, etc.

Madagascar: The Military in Politics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juvence F. Ramasy
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Political Transitions ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Military

In many African countries, armies played a key public role in the aftermath of independence. For this reason, no study of African politics can overlook the militarization of the state. Postcolonial Madagascar, for example, was ruled for over two decades by personnel from its army. National armies often present themselves as neutral entities that can guarantee a country’s political stability. However, there is no such thing as neutrality, whether in Africa or elsewhere. The best hope for armies to become and remain as politically neutral as possible is the demilitarization of political power. The withdrawal of the military from politics and their subordination to civilian decisions is important but does not suffice to ensure the army’s political neutrality. Such a withdrawal was widely carried out through the third wave of democratization, the historical period during which there was a sustained and significant increase in the proportion of competitive regimes. Democratization processes cannot succeed without efforts toward neutralizing the military, and thus, toward demilitarizing the political society and depoliticizing the army. Post-transition regimes striving for democracy should bring about and preserve a formal separation of power between the political and the civilian spheres. For these regimes to establish a solid mandate, the army and the security apparatus need to be placed under democratic control. In Africa, the disengagement of the military from the public sphere came about with the political transitions of the 1990s. But changes in political regimes over the past decade have challenged the democratization process, as the return of praetorianism (an excessive political influence of the armed forces in the Sahel and Madagascar) testifies. Hence, demilitarizing politics, on the one hand and depoliticizing and reprofessionalizing the army on the other remain essential issues to be addressed.

scholarly journals The role of economics and the type of legal standards in antitrust enforcement by DGCOMP: an empirical investigation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Katsoulacos ◽  
G Makri
Keyword(s):  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Optimal Level ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
First Time ◽  
Made In

Abstract We empirically investigate, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the role of economics in antitrust enforcement by EC’s Competition Authority (DGCOMP), by constructing and measuring indicators capturing the extent and type of economics used in reaching infringement decisions between 1992 and 2016. This allows us to identify the legal standards (LSs) adopted in assessing different conducts and their evolution and compare these to their theoretically optimal level, thus capturing the quality of enforcement. On average, economic analysis plays a modest role in investigations, with little analysis to substantiate consumer harm or to account for efficiencies, for conducts for which effects-based would be the appropriate LS. However, there is a consistent and significant improvement over time in the quality of enforcement in abuse of dominance cases, with effects-based LSs adopted in recent years. This contrasts to earlier findings and questions recent views, by indicating that DGCOMP has been influenced by the significant progress that economic analysis of antitrust has made in recent decades. Results on how LSs adopted affect the outcome of the judicial review (the rate of decision annulment) do not support the hypothesis that this increases as LSs move closer to effects-based.

scholarly journals The Course and Consequences of Justice Reform in Georgia

Law and World ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25
Keyword(s):  
Distribution System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
Court System ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Case Distribution ◽  
Case Decisions

Judicial reform in Georgia has been in progress since the 90s. Significant changes have been made within the reform since 2012, including numerous positive changes that have taken place, namely: • Concrete steps were taken to free the High Council of Justice from political influence; • The activities of the Council of Justice have become much more transparent; • The role of the self-government of judges has increased; • An electronic case distribution system has been implemented; • The electronic services in court have improved; • Statistics on administrative case decisions have improved; • Improved statistics on criminal case decisions; Nevertheless, there are still significant problems in the judiciary. These problems concern both the review of cases and the management of the judiciary in general. These problems include: • Independence and impartiality of the judiciary; • Transparency of court hearings; • Violation of the rule of witness interrogation; • Low public confidence in the judiciary; • Delayed cases; • Overloaded court system. In this paper, the author has reviewed the positive steps in detail, taken for judicial reform. The main shortcomings in the current judicial system have also been discussed in detail. In this paper, the author offers her own opinions in order to eliminate the existing problems. At the end, special attention is paid to the need of bringing the justice system and the education system closer.

scholarly journals Competition Law in Western Balkans: Developments in 2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 199-213
Author(s):  
Dragan Gajin
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Merger Control ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
Western Balkans

In 2018, the competition authorities in the Western Balkans (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia) have continued with their enforcement activities. The level of their activity varies from year to year, but the trend has continued where the Serbian competition authority is the most active one in the region. Generally, the focus of the enforcement activities of the Balkan competition authorities is on merger control, an exception being Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the emphasis is on antitrust enforcement.

Competition and Antitrust Enforcement Against Standard Essential Patents in India

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-452
Author(s):  
Samir Gandhi ◽  
Shivanghi Sukumar
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Court Decision ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
Standard Essential Patents ◽  
The World ◽  
Competition Enforcement

Competition authorities and courts across the world have assessed issues at the interface between competition law and intellectual property rights. India is no longer a stranger to this debate and has witnessed the initiation of multiple proceedings involving the exercise of standard essential patents. Further, a long-pending jurisdictional conflict has now been resolved by a court decision, paving the way for the Indian competition authority and courts to concurrently examine the exercise of standard essential patents. While these developments represent a step in the evolution of antitrust jurisprudence in India, several foundational issues in relation to the competition enforcement against standard essential patents are yet to be decided.

Part III Outcomes of an Investigation, 10 Handling and Rejecting Complaints

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawes Anthony ◽  
Rousseva Ekaterina
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Competition Rules ◽  
Administrative Body ◽  
The Eu

This chapter explores the grounds for, and the process of, rejecting complaints, and outlines complainants’ rights. Complaints are crucial for effective antitrust enforcement. They are a tool to trigger cases and help the European Commission to focus on markets and practices that matter to EU citizens. The Commission therefore encourages the submission of complaints. At the same time, the Commission, as any administrative body, has limited resources. To this effect, the EU Courts have on many occasions acknowledged the Commission’s discretion to give differing degrees of priority to the examination of complaints and to choose the criteria for rejecting complaints. The EU competition rules take into account the fact that complaints are better dealt with by the competition authority which is closer to the facts. Moreover, once an allegedly anticompetitive practice is being reviewed or has been already reviewed by a competition authority, Article 13 of Regulation 1/2003 provides that other competition authorities can rely on this review to reject the same allegations if brought to their attention. The approach to complaints also takes into account that Articles 101 and 102 TFEU are directly applicable and that persons affected by allegedly anticompetitive practices may seek redress before national courts.

Strengthening of the institutional capacity of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the conditions of modern society as a scientific and practical problem

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 104-112
Author(s):  
Oleksandr V. Skrypniuk ◽  
Olena O. Tomkina
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Institutional Capacity ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches

Modern scientific research of the problems of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine is conditioned not only by their established theoretical and practical significance for legal doctrine and law enforcement. In the context of modern global challenges and threats that inevitably affect the domestic legal order of Ukraine, taking into consideration the national problems in the field of human rights and freedoms, interaction between state and society, lawmaking, law enforcement and administration of justice, etc., the need to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Constitutional Court is an important scientific and practical task. It is aimed at strengthening the stability of the institution of constitutional jurisdiction in difficult sociopolitical situations, restoring public confidence in the Constitutional Court and the state in general, improving the legal protection of the Constitution of Ukraine and ensuring its supremacy, reviving respect for the Basic Law and the rule of law, accommodating the functioning of the Constitutional Court to the best international standards of constitutional jurisdiction. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the study of the problem of strengthening the institutional capacity of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as a complex scientific and applied issue, which provides for its solution in the interdisciplinary scientific space. General scientific research methods, sociological method, structural-functional, as well as interdisciplinary approaches, are used. The institutional capacity of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is considered as an institutional property of a body of constitutional jurisdiction, which reflects its organisational and functional ability to ensure the implementation of its tasks, functions, and powers under certain conditions and resources. Indicators of the institutional capacity of the Constitutional Court are efficiency, stability, and adaptability to changes. Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Constitutional Court should take place through legal support for strengthening its independence from political influence, improving mechanisms for selecting candidates for judges, modernising constitutional proceedings, developing a mechanism for the Court's interaction with the public, and so on. The main directions of the study of the institutional capacity of the Constitutional Court are determined

Presidential Address: English Families and the Norman Conquest

1944 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. M. Stenton
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Address ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
New Order ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Domesday Book ◽  
English Society ◽  
History Of

There can be no question that the redistribution of land after the Norman Conquest amounted to a tenurial revolution of the most far-reaching kind. It affected the lower classes of society less than their superiors. The Normans possessed no clear-cut system of manorial economy which could be applied as a whole to a conquered country. The later history of England proves that no attempt was ever made to apply a uniform method of estate-management to the various forms assumed by English rural life. The social differences between Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Saxon England were as strongly marked in 1150 as in 1066. But it is equally clear that the Conquest had come to the higher orders of English society as a catastrophe from which they never fully recovered. It was completed within twenty years from the landing of Duke William, and Domesday Book, which is its record, gives conclusive evidence of its intensity and range. In 1086, although many Englishmen were still in possession of considerable estates, it was the rarest of exceptions for an Englishman to hold a position which entitled him to political influence or gave him military power. Two Englishmen only, Thurkill of Arden and Colswein of Lincoln, held tenancies of the first order under the king himself. The English lords of 1086 are clearly survivals from a society which had been shattered by foreign conquest and their place in the new order which had superseded it was obviously insecure.

Public Interest in Antitrust Enforcement: An Australian Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-296
Author(s):  
Rod Sims ◽  
Graeme Woodbridge
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Antitrust Enforcement ◽  
Competition Laws ◽  
Do So

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) objective in enforcing Australia’s competition laws is to make markets work in the interests of Australians by protecting and promoting competition. From the ACCC’s perspective, it is poor public policy to introduce other objectives, such as reducing income inequality or political influence, into the enforcement of competition laws. If the enforcement of competition laws tries to achieve everything, in the end, it will achieve nothing. Moreover, there are other, more targeted instruments that are much better placed to achieve these other objectives. The ACCC is of the view that business conduct is likely to be anticompetitive if it interferes with the process of competition and harms trading parties on the other side of the market, or is likely to do so. The ACCC places great significance on these two issues to develop, test, and establish theories of harm to competition. While this is the case, the ACCC is of the view that it is not necessary to precisely quantify the degree of harm to establish that conduct is anticompetitive. Imposing such a requirement risks under enforcement of competition laws.

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