scholarly journals Online legal platforms – the beginning of the 4.0 law practice?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Pedro Petiz Viana
Keyword(s):  
Competition Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Legislative Reform ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Bar Association ◽  
Recent Project

The 4.0 revolution has reached the legal services industry. New online platforms are emerging to connect clients and lawyers, while also providing new and innovative legal services. Nonetheless, several questions arise regarding these new businesses: How do they fare under the Portuguese regulatory framework? Is there a need for legislative reform? And how are Bar Associations dealing with this new reality? In order to answer these questions, we analyze the characteristics of online legal platforms and their compliance with the statutes of the Portuguese Bar Association and National Law. Secondly, we examine the prohibition by the Portuguese Bar Association of online intermediation platforms, taking into consideration the ECJ’s case law related to professional orders and the EU’s competition law. Thirdly, we study the national legal framework of legal services in light of OECD’s Competition Assessment Review of Portugal. Lastly, we present the recent project by the Portuguese Competition Authority and note its similarities with the ECJ’s case law.

scholarly journals The Evolution of Classical Evaluation Standards in Competition Law: The Legal Assessment of Tying in View of Challenges Raised by Digital Markets

2021 ◽  
pp. 113-139
Author(s):  
Mateusz Musielak
Keyword(s):  
Technological Development ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Evaluation Standards ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Legal Assessment ◽  
Customer Group ◽  
Type Of Abuse ◽  
Modern Tool

This paper provides a detailed review of evaluation standards for the legal assessment of tying. This practice, which constitutes an abuse of a dominant position, is a significant breach of competition law. The mechanism of this type of abuse is based on taking advantage of market power in the supply of one product to create packed offerings capable of precluding competition from superior rival solutions. Tying occurs when one product, the “tying product”, is sold only with another product, the “tied product”. In the prevailing number of cases, tying serves to consolidate the company’s dominant position on the tied product market, which usually aims to share the tying product’s large customer group with the less-desired product. However, tying is not illegal per se. In many cases, it does not lead to any anti-competitive concerns, and might be beneficial for consumers. This is why each assessment of this conduct must be carefully evaluated with special attention given to the effects, in accordance with the generally applied effect-based approach, and also potential efficiencies. An analysis of the case-law and literature reveals the basic mechanisms for conducting a legal assessment of tying. However, the use of these mechanisms will not be possible without their adaptation to the ongoing changes caused by technological development. Digital markets not only generate incremental revenues, but are also the sources of new or unusual legal arrangements. It will more frequently be the case that existing provisions will not be able to address every new practice accurately without new acts. The Digital Markets Act aims to adapt the existing legal framework to contemporary market realities and to become a modern tool for enforcing competition law rules on digital markets. The European Commission is seeking to broaden its powers to intervene at the earliest possible stage, before an undertaking affects the competition on a market.

scholarly journals Information exchanges between competitors from a competition law perspective – the problem of premature exchanges of sensitive information in the context of merger control (Gun Jumping)

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-101
Author(s):  
Nuno Calaim Lourenço
Keyword(s):  
Specific Problem ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Sensitive Information ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Market Transparency ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
European Court ◽  
Competition Rules

The topic of information exchanges between competing undertakings is central to competition law. These are practices that enhance market transparency and, as such, can generate significant efficiencies. However, they can also give rise to serious competition concerns, often because they afford competitors the possibility of reaching focal points of coordination. The analysis of information exchanges has traditionally taken place in the context of the legal framework that prohibits cartels. This article reviews, at first, the approach taken in Europe by competition authorities and courts, firmly grounded in the Commission Guidelines and in the most recent case law of the European Court of Justice. After discussing the relevant legal framework and the main criteria for the assessment of information exchanges in detail, the article elaborates on the specific problem that premature exchanges of information between competitors can create in the context of a merger transaction. As the competitors that they are, at least until closing of the deal, it is essential that contracting parties ensure that their due diligence exercise and the planning of the integration of their businesses are carried out in a manner that is consistent with competition rules, avoiding behaviour that can be interpreted as gun-jumping or as a cartel practice and, as a consequence, financial penalties and judicial claims.

scholarly journals Marketplaces Restrictions and Selective Distribution after Coty Germany

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 241-284
Author(s):  
Patrycja Szot ◽  
Ana Amza
Keyword(s):  
Competition Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Luxury Good ◽  
Luxury Goods ◽  
Selective Distribution ◽  
Price Comparison ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Eu Competition Law ◽  
Key Points ◽  
The Eu

This article discusses the framework of selective distribution agreements within EU competition law following the Coty Germany case and the EU Commission’s 2017 E-commerce report. It argues that the judgment removed, in essence, the limitation of sales via online platforms from the ‘by object box’. In respect of luxury goods, the ban is considered not to infringe competition law at all. In this context, the article addresses one of the judgment’s key points: what constitutes a ‘luxury good’ and evaluates to what an extent this definition can be practically applied. The authors also embark on the conditions under which the restriction is considered proportionate (when applied to non-luxury goods) and point to the risk of divergent interpretations of platform bans across member states. To illustrate the latter, several examples are given from national case-law. The considerations are completed with a brief look at problematic restrictions on the use of price comparison tools.

scholarly journals Sharing economy, competition and regulation: the case of Uber in the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-67
Author(s):  
Patrícia Fragoso Martins
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Intense Debate

This article deals with the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the Uber cases, highlighting some implications of those judgments in the fields of competition and regulation. Uber is widely referred to as the paramount example of sharing economy. With this background, there has been intense debate on the need for a new regulatory framework and on the avenues left open by competition law. Although not addressing said issues directly, by considering Uber a carriage company, and not merely an electronic platform, the Court of Justice has contributed to “thicken the plot” on both these fronts.

Competition law enforcement on digital markets—lessons from recent EU case law

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-278
Author(s):  
Adrian Kuenzler
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Competition Law Enforcement ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article is set against the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) decisions in Pierre Fabre and Coty Germany GmbH, observing that in the digital economy, price is no longer the sole important parameter of competition and that competition law therefore has to reconstruct the theoretical background required to explain the tensions contained in the design of concentrated marketplaces. As the CJEU’s approach taken in Pierre Fabre and Coty shows, competition authorities and courts also need to consider the market’s distinct psychological properties when they contemplate the legal framework that governs it. The article thus explains the CJEU’s decisions not against the well-known debate about inter- and intrabrand competition but with reference to the notion of creating distinct types of ‘variety’ in the marketplace so as to enable consumers to choose not just between the alternative options that they face but also to enable them to make decisions that will shape the manner in which they think about whether they should consider alternative options at all. The article’s findings aim to advance debates about the overarching policy goals of the way in which digital markets ought to be regulated.

scholarly journals Odpowiedzialność przedsiębiorcy za niedostarczanie informacji i dokumentów na żądanie Prezesa UOKiK – kilka refl eksji po decyzji w sprawie Engie

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-74
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Kanton
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Risk Of Exposure ◽  
Legislative Changes ◽  
Article 50 ◽  
Basic Standards

The article contains an analysis of the solutions adopted in the Polish legal system governing the procedure for requesting information and documents by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (President of UOKiK). In the first part of the article, the author discusses the basic standards that should be met by a request of the UOKiK, with regard to the scope of the request and its purpose, taking into account, in particular, the guidelines which follow from EU case-law. The author considers the scope of the obligation under Article 50 Section 1 of the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection (the Act), criticizing the solution that makes it impossible in practice to challenge the demands of the President of UOKiK without a risk of exposure to severe financial sanctions. The proposals for amendments of applicable regulations are also discussed, the aim of which would be to provide business undertakings with an adequate standard of protection of their fundamental rights in connect in with the procedure for submitting information and documents requested by the President of UOKiK. The second part of the article is devoted to issues concerning financial penalties for a breach of the obligation referred to in Article 50 Section 1 of the Act. The author discusses the current legal framework and indicates the need to introduce certain legislative changes in the future. The analysis also covers the practice of the Polish competition authority to impose penalties for a breach of the obligation under Article 50 Section 1 of the Act

The role of standardization as a key Tool of Quality Economics in the development of integration of the Eurasian Economic Union

2019 ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
V. V. Okrepilov ◽  
A. G. Gridasov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Integration ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Member States ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Eurasian Economic Union ◽  
Economic Union

The presented study examines the experience of forming a regulatory framework for the integration of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states through the example of standardization as one of the key tools of quality economics.Aim. The study analyzes the major solutions of the EAEU authorities and member countries aimed at increasing the role of standardization in the economic integration of the Union over five years of its existence.Tasks. The authors identify efficient methods for developing standardization for the integration of the EAEU states as well as the most problematic aspects in this field that need to be taken into account in the qualitative strengthening of the Union’s economy.Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition to examine the activities of the EAEU authorities and member states aimed at creating a system for the economic integration of the Union during a period of its transition from separate national markets towards a single (common) market.Results. Over five years of operation in the field of stadardization, the Eurasian Economic Union has created the necessary organizational and legal framework to ensure the successful development of integration processes. The national legislation on standardization has been modernized with allowance for the harmonization of these laws. In the next five-six years, the development of international standards for 40 technical regulations is expected to be completed, which would create a regulatory framework for unhindered interaction between all participants of the single (common) EAEU market. Conclusions. The analysis of activities in the field of standardization reveals a sufficiently thought-out and coordinated policy of the EAEU states in creating the necessary conditions for overcoming legal and administrative barriers in the movement of goods and services within the common economic space of the EAEU.

Digital Markets and Online Platforms: New Perspectives on Regulation and Competition Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Kraemer ◽  
Marc Bourreau ◽  
Sally Broughton Micova ◽  
Alexandre de Streel ◽  
Richard Feasey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Competition Law ◽  
Online Platforms

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Legal Framework for Building Fire Safety Regulations in Spain

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Amaya Osácar ◽  
Juan Bautista Echeverria Trueba ◽  
Brian Meacham
Keyword(s):  
Fire Safety ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Building Fire ◽  
Safety Regulations ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Ideal

There is a trend in Europe towards increasing the quality and performance of regulations. At the same time, regulatory failure has been observed in the area of building fire safety regulation in England and elsewhere. As a result, an analysis of the appropriateness of fire safety regulations in Spain is warranted, with the objective being to assess whether a suitable level of fire safety is currently being delivered. Three basic elements must be considered in such analysis: the legal and regulatory framework, the level of fire risk/safety of buildings that is expected and the level which actually results, and a suitable method of analysis. The focus of this paper is creating a legal and regulatory framework, in particular with respect to fire safety in buildings. Components of an ”ideal” building regulatory framework to adequately control fire risk are presented, the existing building regulatory framework is summarized, and an analysis of the gaps between the ideal and the existing systems is presented. It is concluded that the gaps between the ideal and the existing framework are significant, and that the current fire safety regulations are not appropriate for assuring delivery of the intended level of fire risk mitigation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document