Germany’s economic dominance in Europe, generous investment incentives, and technical manufacturing prowess has encouraged an influx of Chinese-led inbound activity, concentrated in high-tech sector mergers and acquisitions. A close examination of these M&As yields evidence of systemic Chinese state-financing through both state-owned and private vehicles that likely stems from China’s “Made in China 2025” policy, which hopes to stem capital outflow and to indigenize technological innovation. As Germany braces for what it sees to be continuous attempts by China to take patented German technology through M&As, it worries that Chinese patent law will allow for rampant patent infringement by copycat Chinese entities. This paper presents an overview of the root causes of China’s heavy economic activity in Germany, as well as an analysis of the legal concerns held by German firms based on a close reading of the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China and strategic recommendations for German companies hoping to work with or in China.

nÃo hà / Em 2008, o mundo se deparou com uma crise econÃmica que abalou as pilastras e confiabilidade no setor bancÃrio mundial. Os bancos se estruturam em um processo defensivo de proteÃÃo de seus ativos. No Brasil, O Governo Federal estimulou os bancos pÃblicos a prover crÃdito no mercado, buscado suavizar os efeitos de fuga de investimento e repatriaÃÃo de cash na recomposiÃÃo dos ativos. A pergunta chave desse artigo Ã: houve alteraÃÃo na Competitividade de Bancos PÃblicos e Privados em Mercados Locais Brasileiros apÃs o ano 2000? Mais de uma dÃcada se passou e refizemos essa verificaÃÃo para dados de 2010, seguindo Bresnahan e Reiss (1991a), e comparamos com o trabalho de Coelho, Pinho e Rezende (2011). Dada a alta concentraÃÃo no setor bancÃrio, como se comportaria uma simulaÃÃo de fusÃo entre os dois maiores bancos pÃblicos brasileiros? Esse trabalho se divide em 03 (trÃs) artigos. No artigo n 1, verificamos se houve mudanÃa na competitividade em bancos pÃblicos e privados para a dÃcada de 2010. Constatamos mudanÃas significativas, com alteraÃÃo da qualificaÃÃo do custo e do processo de estruturaÃÃo da margem preÃo-custo que nos faz inferir numa mudanÃa na composiÃÃo e de estratÃgias dos bancos pÃblicos e privados em uma nova visÃo competitiva do setor. Os bancos pÃblicos nÃo afetam o comportamento dos bancos privados em mercados locais, mas a exigÃncia de tamanho de mercado para a inserÃÃo de um novo concorrente foi reduzida pela alteraÃÃo da estrutura dos custos e influÃncias de efeitos regionais. E se considerÃssemos o mercado com apenas um banco pÃblico? No artigo n 2, refizemos a anÃlise, considerando a CAIXA como o Ãnico banco pÃblico, e encontramos resultados semelhantes a nossa anÃlise revisional de 2010, a notar mais Ãnfase nos efeitos regionais, tanto na reduÃÃo dos custos pra a regiÃo Norte como na alteraÃÃo negativa nos deslocadores de demanda para as regiÃes Sudeste, Sul e Centro-Oeste, bem como influÃncia praticamente nula do Ãnico banco pÃblico â CAIXA na reduÃÃo dos lucros dos bancos privados. No artigo n 3, apresentamos uma anÃlise de simulaÃÃo de fusÃo no setor bancÃrio brasileiro. O objetivo central foi capturar os efeitos da fusÃo entre o Banco do Brasil e a CAIXA em 12 (doze) segmentos/portifÃlios mais significativos do mercado. Os resultados do equilÃbrio pÃs-fusÃo foram obtidos pelo modelo PCAIDS (Proportionality-Calibrated Almost Ideal Demand System), proposto por Epstein e Rubinfeld (2002), que simula a fusÃo de 02 (duas) empresas em um mercado oligopolizado. Os Resultados do exercÃcio de simulaÃÃo confirmaram os aumentos esperados nos âpreÃosâ dos segmentos. Este resultado à condizente com a expectativa de que as fusÃes implicam em aumentos de preÃos de mercado e, sem ganhos de eficiÃncia econÃmica, podem impor perdas para os consumidores. / In 2008, the world faced an economic crisis that shook the pillars and reliability in the global banking sector. Banks are structured in a defensive process of its asset protection. In Brazil, the federal government encouraged public banks to provide credit in the market, sought to soften the investment leakage effects and cash repatriation in the restructuring of assets. The key question that is: was no change in Competitiveness Public and Private Banks in Local Brazilian markets after 2000? More than a decade has passed and redid this check to 2010 data, following Bresnahan and Reiss (1991a), and compared with Coelho's work, Pinho and Rezende (2011). Given the high concentration in the banking sector, would behave as a simulation of a merger between the two largest Brazilian public banks? This work is divided into 03 (three) articles. In Article 1, we check to see if there was a change in competitiveness in public and private banks for the decade to 2010. We found significant changes, by changing the qualification of the cost and price-cost margin of the structuring process that makes us infer a change in the composition and strategies of public and private banks in a new competitive view of the sector. Public banks will affect the behavior of private banks in local markets, but the market size requirement for the inclusion of a new competitor was reduced by changing the cost structure and influences of regional effects. And if we consider the market with only a public bank? In Article 2, redid the analysis, considering CAIXA as the only state-owned bank, and found similar results to our revisional analysis 2010, noted more emphasis on regional effects, both in reducing costs to the North as in the negative change in demand shifters for the Southeast, South and Midwest, and virtually no influence of the only public bank - CAIXA in reducing the profits of private banks. In Article 3, we present a fusion of simulation analysis in the Brazilian banking sector. The main objective was to capture the effects of the merger between Banco do Brazil and CAIXA in 12 (twelve) segments most significant portfolio in the market. The results of the post-merger balance were obtained by PCAIDS model (Proportionality-Calibrated Almost Ideal Demand System), proposed by Epstein and Rubinfeld (2002), which simulates the merger of 02 (two) companies in an oligopoly market. The results of the simulation exercise confirmed the expected increases in "price" of the segments. This result is consistent with the expectation that mergers entail market price increases and without economic efficiency gains, impose losses to consumers.

M.Comm. / South Africa's new political dispensation has indicated that it regards unbundling of conglomerates and antitrust policy as appropriate means to ensure black empowerment and create wealth among the victums of the apartheid-era. Unbundling will however not necessarily aid the distribution of wealth due to the existing shareholder structure in the country. The creation of an entrepreneural class is seen as an effective means to alleviate the jobless problem and empower the masses, but will be difficult to establish without help from government, and more importantly, big business. PURPOSE The main purpose of this study is to investigate the causes of bundling and current business size and how black empowerment and wealth creation can be addressed through new structures. METHOD OF STUDY In this study information was obtained from existing literature sourced from the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Small Business Development Corporation, investment community, Business Periodical Index and libraries at Rand Afrikaans University and University of South Africa. FINDINGS The historic reasons for current business size are essentially the same as those in the rest of the world, with the exception that politics played a major role in South Africa. The exclusion of certain population groups led to political instability and the sanctions-era, which increased the tendency for big business to bundle or form conglomerates. Evidence exists that unbundling will not create wealth by distributing ownership of companies but could in fact only benefit existing shareholders. Black empowerment and wealth creation can be established by the forming of new pyramid-structures and the creation of an entrepreneural class with help from existing conglomerates and government. South Africa is part of the international economic environment and needs big businesses in order to be competitive. Small businesses on the other hand can be utilized to address the unemployment problem especially in rural areas. Conglomerates can assist small businesses with mangement and finance which should prove to be a better alternative in the long run than unbundling.

La norme technique exige parfois de lui associer des innovations faisant l’objet de droits privatifs, au bénéfice de la réalisation de sa mission. De prime abord, la propriété intellectuelle apparaît comme étant un élément perturbateur, impliquant désormais d’examiner l’ « économie » de la norme au moment de son élaboration et de son utilisation et non plus uniquement la technique. Pour éviter la corruption de la norme par des droits privatifs trop contraignants, les organismes de normalisation exigent que seuls les droits privatifs « essentiels » soient associés à la norme. Les critères de l’adhérence réciproque de la norme et de l’innovation structurant leur association, justifient au nom de son « utilité sociale », une adaptation réciproque des régimes juridiques attachés à ses deux composantes. Ainsi l’ « utilité sociale » incarnée par la norme technique impose une adaptation du régime des droits de propriété intellectuelle. Symétriquement, l’innovation « essentielle » à la norme suppose une adaptation du régime de la norme technique à la propriété intellectuelle. Cela donne naissance à deux régimes juridiques substantiellement interpénétrés et structurellement interdépendants. D’une part, les droits privatifs étant « essentiels » à la norme, peuvent être considérés comme des « infrastructures essentielles », justifiant une érosion systémique de leur portée dans le cadre de leur association à la norme. Dans le cadre de l’application de règles de concurrence, cette érosion résulte d’une approche ex post à laquelle se conjugue une approche ex ante, conceptualisée par les conditions FRAND. D’autre part, l’association s’évalue également à l’aune de la propriété privée. Il apparaît que la norme technique devrait être considérée comme étant une chose commune imposant d’aménager, au bénéfice de ses utilisateurs, un accès et une utilisation libre. Cela suppose d’envisager alors l’émergence d’un droit d’utilisation de l’innovation associée à la norme technique. / Technical standards may sometimes be associated to innovations covered by proprietary rights. In this case, intellectual property appears to embody a quite disturbing component within the partnership between standardization and innovation. We are thus led to analyse the association economy ; it must be construed as of the creation and the use of the standard rather than to insist on its sole technical aspects. In order to avoid the corruption of the standard by over-restrictive IP rights, standard-setting-organizations require that only "essential" proprietary rights can be associated to a technical standard. Economical and technical criterias of the mutual adherence of the technical standard and the owned innovation – structuring their association – justify in the name of its "social utility", a mutual adaptation of their legal regimes. Therefore, the technical standard’s "social utility" requires an adaptation of the IP rights legal regime. Symmetrically, the essential innovation, included in the standard, requires its fitting to the technical standards legal regime. This results in the rise of two regimes naturally interpenetrated, and structurally interdependent. On the one hand, IP rights "essential" to the standard, can be considered as "essential facilities", justifying a systematic erosion of their spectrum. As part of competition rules implementation, this erosion results from an ex post approach as well as an ex ante approach conceptualized by FRAND terms. On the other hand, the association is also evaluated through the private property perspective. It appears that the technical standard should be considered as a "common", assuming a free access and a free use. It contributes to create a right of use of the owned innovations integrated in technical standard.

La thèse est une collection de cinq articles académiques, chacun apportant une contribution originale à la connaissance et à la recherche scientifique dans le domaine de l’économie de l’imposition du capital et des sociétés. Les travaux empiriques de Gaëtan Nicodème se situent dans le contexte de la concurrence fiscale en Europe.<p><p>Le premier chapitre ‘Corporate Tax Competition and Coordination in the European Union: What do we know? Where do we stand? (Publié dans International Taxation Handbook) revisite la problématique de la concurrence fiscale dans l’Union Européenne, discute la littérature économique théorique et empirique sur la question et analyse les réponses politiques qui y sont apportées. Après avoir remis la problématique dans son contexte institutionnel, l’auteur compare les résultats provenant de la littérature avec les caractéristiques propres à l’Union Européenne, notamment en termes de l’étendue et des conséquences de la concurrence fiscale. Il passe ensuite en revue les questions théoriques et de mise en œuvre pratique que soulèvent une possible harmonisation et consolidation des bases fiscales de l’impôt des sociétés en Europe. Tout en gardant à l’esprit la diversité des solutions qui existent dans la mise en œuvre, il montre que l’harmonisation des bases fiscales est à même de générer des gains économiques. Le deuxième chapitre ‘Comparing Effective Corporate Tax Rates’ (à paraître dans Frontiers in Finance and Economics) passe en revue les méthodes de calcul de taux effectifs de l’impôt des sociétés. Le mérite de la contribution est non seulement d’offrir une typologie des ces taux mais également de montrer que leurs résultats sont très différents selon la méthode utilisée, que ce soit en niveau ou en classement des pays. L’auteur calcule également ces taux pour un échantillon de pays Européens avec une désagrégation sectorielle. Le troisième chapitre ‘Do Large Companies have Lower Effective Corporate Tax rates ?A European Survey’ utilise ces méthodes pour étudier s’il existe un lien entre les taux effectifs et la taille des entreprises. Utilisant de multiples méthodes d’estimation, l’auteur trouve un lien robuste et négatif entre le nombre d’employés et le taux effectif d’imposition des entreprises. Le quatrième chapitre ‘Foreign Ownership and Corporate Income Taxation :an Empirical Evaluation’ (co-auteur H. Huizinga et publié dans European Economic Review) constitue la première évaluation empirique pour l’Europe des théories d’exportation fiscale. Lorsque la mobilité du capital est imparfaite et que celui-ci est détenu par des actionnaires étrangers, les Etats ont un incitant à hausser la fiscalité pour exporter la charge fiscale sur ces actionnaires. L’étude empirique trouve une relation positive robuste entre le degré d’actionnariat étranger et la charge fiscale moyenne, validant ces théories. Le cinquième et dernier chapitre ‘Are International Deposits Tax Driven ?(Co-auteur H. Huizinga et publié dans Journal of Public Economics) analyse l’impact de l’imposition de l’épargne et de la fortune ainsi que de l’échange d’informations fiscales sur les dépôts bancaires internationaux. Utilisant des données bilatérales confidentielles de la BRI, l’étude montre que ces variables fiscales ont un impact sur ces dépôts, suggérant qu’ils sont en partie effectués pour éluder l’impôt.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

One of the recognised ways through which a firm may increase its market share or reorganise its presence in a market is through a merger. A merger occurs when independent firms combine their businesses. Section 12A of the Competition Act, 1998, provides two grounds in terms of which mergers must be evaluated by competition authorities. These are competition and public interest considerations. The Act is reticent on which, between the two considerations, should take precedence in the event that the two conflict. The anterior purpose of this study is therefore to provide an in-depth analysis on which consideration must take precedence in the event of conflict. On analysis, the majority of case law suggests that the competition considerations must take precedence. This observation is also buttressed by a significant amount of literature, which holds that in merger analysis, the public interests only play a secondary role to the competition inquiry. / Mercantile Law / LL.M. (Mercantile Law)

V ANGLICKÉM JAZYCE Private-law consequences of a breach of competition law and their enforcement in the Czech Republic The private-law consequences of a breach of competition law, Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU and Sections 3 and 11 of the Czech Competition Act, may affect many entities, irrespective of whether they are competitors or consumers. Recently, emphasis has been placed on private enforcement of competition law that is intended to serve as an important complement to public law enforcement. The first part of the dissertation defines basic concepts and principles of competition law including "public rules on restriction of competition". The history of the enforcement of competition law in the Czech Republic and the dynamic development in this area at the EU level are outlined in the second part. The third crucial part of this work deals with the right to damages caused by a breach of competition law in the Czech Republic. In 2014, the EU adopted Directive 2014/104 on certain rules in damages actions with the view, inter alia, to increase the effectiveness of private enforcement of competition rules by civil courts of EU Member States. On August 18, 2017, new Act No. 262/2017 Coll. which implements the Directive into Czech law was adopted. The dissertation...

V ANGLICKÉM JAZYCE Private-law consequences of a breach of competition law and their enforcement in the Czech Republic The private-law consequences of a breach of competition law, Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU and Sections 3 and 11 of the Czech Competition Act, may affect many entities, irrespective of whether they are competitors or consumers. Recently, emphasis has been placed on private enforcement of competition law that is intended to serve as an important complement to public law enforcement. The first part of the dissertation defines basic concepts and principles of competition law including "public rules on restriction of competition". The history of the enforcement of competition law in the Czech Republic and the dynamic development in this area at the EU level are outlined in the second part. The third crucial part of this work deals with the right to damages caused by a breach of competition law in the Czech Republic. In 2014, the EU adopted Directive 2014/104 on certain rules in damages actions with the view, inter alia, to increase the effectiveness of private enforcement of competition rules by civil courts of EU Member States. On August 18, 2017, new Act No. 262/2017 Coll. which implements the Directive into Czech law was adopted. The dissertation...

Europe is facing a climate and environmental crisis. To respond to this, the European Commission has launched several programmes, which aim to increase sustainability and environmental protection. This aim has been condensed into the policy document that is the European Green Deal. The European Green Deal sets out the aim of making the Union’s economy climate neutral, while improving environmental protection and protecting biodiversity. To this end, several different sectors of the economy need to be overhauled.  In EU Law, a key policy area is to protect free competition. Article 101 TFEU sets out that agreements between undertakings which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition are prohibited. Similarly, Article 102 TFEU prohibits abuse by an undertaking of a dominant position.  This thesis explores what happens when competition law thus intersects with the environmental policy of the Union. The thesis identifies two main situations  of interaction. Undertakings can invoke environmental protection to justify a restriction of competition. The Union may also rely on its antitrust provisions to enforce sustainability by holding unsustainable practices as restrictive agreements or abuses of dominant behaviour, respectively, and thus prohibited by the antitrust provisions.  Generally, the thesis concludes that there is not enough information on how the Commission and the CJEU will approach arguments relating to sustainability in its antitrust assessment. The Commission’s consumer welfare standard appears to limit environmental integration to points where a certain factor results affects the environment or sustainability on the one hand, and consumer welfare on the other. The lack of information, moreover, is in itself an issue as undertakings may abstain from environmental action if they believe they will come under scrutiny due to violations of the antitrust provisions. Therefore, a key conclusion in the thesis is that the Commission and the CJEU should set out clear guidelines for environmental action by undertakings, in relation to the antitrust provisions. Similarly, the Commission appears to be cautious to use antitrust as a tool against unsustainable practices. The Commission has, however, recently decided to open an investigation into agreements which limit sustainability, which shows that the picture may be changing.

Competition and data protection law are two powerful regimes simultaneously shaping the use of digital information, which has given rise to new interactions between these areas of law. While most views on this intersection emphasize that competition and data protection law must work together, nascent developments indicate that these legal regimes may sometimes conflict.  In the first place, firms faced with antitrust allegations are to an increasing extent invoking the need to protect the privacy of their users to justify their impugned conduct. Here, the conduct could either be prohibited by competition law despite of data protection or justified under competition law because of data protection. In the EU, no such justification attempt has reached court-stage, and it remains unclear how an enforcer ought to deal with such a claim. In the second place, competition law can mandate a firm to provide access to commercially valuable personal data to its rivals under a competition law remedy. Where that is the case, the question arising in this connection is whether an enforcer can and should design the remedy in a way that aligns with data protection law. If so, the issue remains of how that ought to be done. The task of the thesis has been to explore these issues, legally, economically, and coherently.  The thesis has rendered four main conclusions. First, data protection has a justified role in EU competition law in two ways. On the one hand, enhanced data protection can increase the quality of a service and may thus be factored in the competitive analysis as a dimension of quality. On the other, data protection as a human right must be guaranteed in the application of competition law. Second, these perspectives can be squared with the criteria for justifying competition breaches, in that data protection can be invoked to exculpate a firm from antitrust allegations. Third, in that context, the human rights dimension of data protection may entail that the enforcer must consider data protection even if it is not invoked. However, allowing data protection interests to override competition law in this manner is relatively inefficient as it may lead to less innovation, higher costs, and lower revenues. Fourth, the profound importance of data protection in the EU necessarily means that enforcers should accommodate data protection interests in designing competition law remedies which mandate access to personal data. This may be done in several ways, including requirements to anonymize data before providing access, or to oblige the firm to be compliant with data protection law in the process of providing access. The analysis largely confirms that anonymization is the preferable option.