scholarly journals Consumer Welfare in Financial Services: A View from EU Competition Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson

The paper analyses to what extent financial consumer protection forms part of the competition law objective of consumer welfare that EU competition law nowadays adheres to. It argues that while EU consumer law more generally aims at protecting the final consumer, EU financial consumer protection instruments often protect a broader spectrum of customers. This wider notion of the consumer can also be found in EU competition law, where the consumer is usually likened to any customer. A notable difference between EU financial consumer protection and EU competition law, however, is that they place a different emphasis on structural goals and inherently individual components. In EU competition law, the structural protection of competition is thought to eventually protect consumers. By uniting individual and structural aspects of consumer welfare, as well as by combining reactive and proactive consumer protection, EU competition law and EU financial consumer protection law can together achieve a financial protection of consumers that naturally goes beyond what each area of the law could achieve alone. A stringent approach, however, would require the development of a comprehensive EU financial consumer law which includes both dimensions.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-83
Author(s):  
Lam Uyen Lu ◽  
Niloufer Selvadurai

AbstractIn upholding a consumer's right to information, regulations prohibiting misleading or deceptive conduct perform a critical role in supporting consumer welfare and encouraging equity in business and commerce. While Vietnam enacted a Law on Consumer Protection in 2010, its provisions in this area are limited in ambit and application. In order to improve the effectiveness of a consumer's right to information in Vietnam, it is useful to examine the Australia Consumer Law which has a sophisticated regulatory framework in this area. By comparing the laws prohibiting misleading or deceptive conduct in the Vietnamese Law on Consumer Protection and the Australia Consumer Law, this article identifies certain similarities and differences between the two legal systems, thereby clarifying shortcomings that can lead to inadequacies and inefficiencies of this area of the law and providing a platform for law reform in Vietnam.


Author(s):  
Nazzini Renato

This concluding chapter retraces the main thread of the reasoning in this book, from the identification of the normative foundations of competition law to the discussion of the objective of EU competition law and Article 102 and the design of the tests to determine whether conduct is abusive and whether one or more undertakings are dominant. The objective, principles, and tests that constitute the legal fabric of Article 102 can be summarized in thirty-four propositions divided into three parts: objectives and general principles; assessment of conduct; and assessment of dominance. The chapter then highlights the main areas where the current case law or enforcement practice is in need of being reviewed. These main areas include the law on conditional rebates, refusal to supply, margin squeeze, tying, discrimination, and exploitative abuses.


Author(s):  
Alison Jones ◽  
Brenda Sufrin ◽  
Niamh Dunne

This chapter provides an introduction to, and basis for, the material discussed in the subsequent chapters. It introduces some relevant concepts of microeconomics including demand curves, consumer and producer surplus, elasticity of demand, and economies of scale and scope. It discusses the model of perfect competition and the concepts of allocative, productive and dynamic efficiency; the problems in competition terms of monopoly and oligopoly; and the concept of welfare, particularly consumer welfare and total welfare. It considers various schools of competition analysis and theories and concepts relevant to competition law. It discusses the possible objectives of competition law, and particularly considers what objectives are pursued by EU competition law. The chapter also looks at US antitrust law; competition law and the digital economy; competition law and regulation; and at some basic issues in the application of EU competition law.


Author(s):  
McMeel Gerard

This chapter discusses the law governing intermediaries in the financial services industry. The relationship between the various species of intermediary and both the service provider and the customer, is prima facie governed by the rules of agency developed at common law, together with a statutory overlay. The Financial Services Act 1986 introduced the statutory concept of the appointed representative, which allowed regulated persons to appoint other persons for whom they accepted regulatory responsibility, and as a measure of consumer protection initiated a regime of vicarious responsibility, whereby the appointing principal was deemed responsible for everything said or done, or not said or done, by its appointed representatives. That regime was continued and expanded to the whole financial services industry by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-30
Author(s):  
Desi Apriani

The business world is something that cannot be separated from business competition. There are business actors who compete in a fair competition  and there are also business actors who compete in a unfair competition. This is where the importance of the presence of business competition law in a country. In Indonesia, business competition law is contained in Law Number 5 of 1999 which prohibits monopolistic practices and unfair business competition. In relation to consumer protection, Law Number 5 Year 1999 has the aim of protecting the public interest and seeking public welfare. The prohibitions in the law indirectly have a protected effect on consumer interests. Need consistency in enforcement of business competition law so that the goal of protecting consumers can be achieved optimally.


Author(s):  
Nazzini Renato

Article 102 of the TFEU prohibits the abuse of a dominant position as incompatible with the common market. Its application in practice has been wide-ranging with goals as diverse as the preservation of an undistorted competitive process, the protection of economic freedom, the maximisation of consumer welfare, total welfare, or economic efficiency all cited as possible or desirable objectives. These conflicting aims have raised complex, conceptual questions such as how a dominant position should be defined, and how abuses can be assessed. This book addresses the conceptual questions underlying the test to be applied under Article 102 in light of the objectives of EU competition law. Adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the book covers all the main issues relating to Article 102, including the definition of dominance, the taxonomy of abuses, and the criteria for the assessment of individual abusive practices. It provides an in-depth doctrinal and normative commentary of the case law with the aim of establishing an intellectually robust and practically workable analytical framework for abuse of dominance.


Author(s):  
Arletta Gorecka

The relationship between competition law and privacy is still seen as problematic with academics and professionals trying to adequately assess the impact of privacy on the competition law sphere. The chapter looks at the legal development of the EU merger proceedings to conclude that EU competition law is based on the prevailing approach and assesses decisions involving data through the spectrum of keeping a competitive equilibrium in hypothetical markets. Secondly, it considers the legal developments in the EU Member States' practice, which acknowledges the apparent intersection between the phenomena of competition law and privacy. This chapter attempts to propose that privacy concerns appear to hold a multidimensional approach on competition legal regime; nevertheless, it does not result in the need of legal changes within the remits of competition law, as the privacy concerns are already protected by the data protection and consumer protection law.


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