Fondée en 1926, la première Entente internationale de l’acier (EIA) était impuissante à contrôler le développement de nouvelles capacités de production dans les pays membres. Les groupes sidérurgiques nationaux réunis dans l’EIA se partageaient des quotas de production. Fin 1929, les maîtres de forges sont convaincus que l’EIA ne peut survivre qu’en passant à une réglementation des exportations. Ils lancent l’entreprise des Comptoirs internationaux d’exportation dont la mise en route s’avère aussi difficile que leur fonctionnement ultérieur. Ils échouent après quelques mois seulement (été 1930). En mars 1931, la première EIA cesse de fonctionner. On assiste alors à un déchaînement sans précédant de la concurrence. Les prix s’effondrent. Les dirigeants des firmes sidérurgiques cherchent alors le salut dans une nouvelle entente internationale. Les tractations aboutissent à la création de la seconde EIA (février 1933) qui, à l’opposé de la première, est axée sur un partage des seules exportations. Elle est coiffée d’une demi-douzaine de Comptoirs de vente internationaux qui règlementent les ventes à l’exportation. En même temps, on note une tendance très nette à la protection mutuelle des marchés intérieurs au sein de l’EIA. Le dépouillement d’une documentation abondante et inédite nous a permis d’analyser le dynamisme interne, les effets et les limites de l’EIA au cours des années trente. / The International Steel Cartel (ISC), founded in 1926, was unable to control the development of production capacity in the member countries. The steelmakers, who were gathered in the ISC, shared production quota. At the end of 1929, steel producers were convinced that the ISC could only survive by changing over in order to regulate exports. The steel manufacturers of Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Saar decided to set up provisional international export syndicates for single products. These export syndicates did not achieve their aim. In March 1931, the ISC ceased to operate so that we are witnessing an outburst of the competition. Prices collapsed. The steel managers were seeking salvation in a new international agreement. The negotiations succeeded in the creation of the second ISC (1933), which, contrary to the first one, was centred on sharing of only exports. It was topped by half a dozen international syndicates, which regulated export sales. At the same time, we can see a very clear trend towards the protection of the internal markets within the ISC. The analysis of new archives allows us a better understanding of the internal dynamism, the effects and limits of the cartel during the thirties.

Thesis (doctoral)--Berlin, Humboldt-Universiẗat, 2006. Zugl.: Berlin, Humboldt-Universiẗat, Diss., 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-282).

This doctoral dissertation examines the European Commission’s dawn raid practices in competition cases from a fundamental rights perspective. In recent years the Commission has adopted a new and more aggressive enforcement policy, which reflects the widespread understanding that cartels and abuse of market power are harmful to the economy and should be punished. Given both the considerable gains to be made through anti-competitive practices and the cartel’s nature of secrecy, effective application of the competition rules requires that competition authorities are vested with far-reaching investigatory powers. At the same time, EU fundamental rights protection has been strengthened through the Lisbon Treaty, and the Commission now has to ensure effective application of the EU competition rules while navigating through an array of fundamental rights, such as the right of the defence and the right to privacy. The doctoral dissertation explores whether it is possible to strike a balance between the interests of ensuring effective dawn raids and adequate fundamental rights protection, or whether the Commission has been handed an impossible task. As the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights requires EU fundamental rights protection to meet or exceed the standard set by the ECHR, the research is based on case-law from both the EU Courts and the European Court of Human Rights. The research demonstrates that the European Court of Human Rights has adopted a flexible approach towards inspections at business premises; it does not require an ex ante review of inspection decisions and accepts rather intrusive investigatory measures, provided that and as long as the procedural safeguards surrounding such measures are considered adequate. This way, the court manages to strike a balance between efficiency concerns and the rights of undertakings. As for the EU system, the EU Courts are not providing judicial review to the extent required by the ECHR. While inspection decisions may be challenged, the possibilities to challenge measures taken on their basis, or have those measures suspended, are limited. This discrepancy between EU and ECHR law – which is of seemingly limited nature – may affect the legitimacy of the entire dawn raid procedure as the granting of far-reaching investigatory powers must be counterbalanced by effective judicial control to ensure that measures adopted by the Commission are neither disproportionate nor arbitrary. Absent an effective judicial control of measures taken on the basis of inspection decisions, the procedural safeguards surrounding dawn raids cannot be considered adequate, and it is possible that the powers of the Commission may need to be restricted accordingly. The research also demonstrates that some of the limitations in the legal professional privilege – such as the exclusion of correspondence with non-EU lawyers or legal advice that lacks connection with the subject-matter of the investigation – do not serve the interests of a proper administration of justice and may therefore be questioned.

1 Abstract - Protection of Economic Competition - Agreements Violating Competition Agreements distorting competition are quite dangerous for the goals of competition law and it is necessary to search for them, find them and punish them. Therefore, the goal of this thesis was to provide a complex explanation of the issue of prohibited agreements from the point of view of Czech and European competition law. Relatively brusque diction of primary sources of law is typical for competition law and for the regulation of prohibited agreements. For this reason a large area of law is left to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and also for national courts in administrative judiciary. The thesis has in mind also the importance of the soft law which serve as a manual of the approach of the European Commission and the Office for the protection of competition which leads to a higher level of legal certainty. First chapter is dedicated to the explanation of basic terms of economic competition and of competition law. The largest space is given to the definition of the Czech term "competitor" and its European equivalent "undertaking". This chapter also explains relevant market and the matter of relationship between Czech and European competition law. The whole second chapter is dedicated to the...

Protection of Economic Competition - Agreements Distorting Competition The topic of this thesis is agreements distorting economic competition, traditionally referred to as cartels. Cartels are various forms of explicit and implied agreements among participants in economic competition which are capable of affecting the competition in a negative way and result not only into damaging other competitors, but also mostly into damaging the consumers. The main purpose of this thesis is to present a comprehensive view on the issues of agreements distorting economic competition from the point of the Czech and European substantive legal regulation and take into account some aspects of their practical assessment. Another purpose was to evaluate the alternatives of sanctioning of the prohibited agreements, both public enforcement and private enforcement of claims of the subjects that suffered loss resulting from the agreements. A partial purpose was to suggest possible future regulation of chosen areas. Chapter One is an introduction and includes delimitation of aims of the thesis. Chapter Two deals with the essence of the agreements and the concept itself. It also explains briefly, which particular impacts can these agreements practically have. Chapter Three delimits the boundary between the illegal cartel...

This thesis investigated how the Mexican cartels have taken advantage of loop holes in U.S. policy to grow their drug market and power. Three policies were examined to demonstrate how the cartels adapted to policy changes and continued to thrive and expand. The first policy analyzed was the North American Free Trade Agreement, which opened up the borders between Mexico and the United States. The next policy investigated was the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which instituted harsher punishments for illegal immigration and caused mass deportation. The final policy examined was the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994. This act outlawed automatic weapons and put restrictions on high capacity magazines. The research found that through these three policies, the Mexican cartels were able to physically export more drugs into the United States, expand their influence and recruitment of immigrants for labor, and obtain more guns to carry out violence.

Drug-related violence in Mexico has increased exponentially in the last five years, killing near 50,000 people. Even though the country has been a producer of marijuana and opium poppy for nearly a century, it was not until the beginning of the new millennium that drug violence skyrocketed. Up until now, academic studies and policy papers have focused primarily on the political changes Mexico underwent over the last decade and on ingrained corruption as the central factors in explaining the increased violence. But such a jump in homicides rates, as well as the sheer brutality of the violence involved, also reflects the evolution of the country's drug organizations -- which went from being merely feared and ruthless drug producers and smugglers to far-reaching criminal empires that now dominate all aspects of the illicit drug underworld in the Americas. Many have become so powerful that they have formed their own armies of hit men and foot soldiers that operate like full-fledged paramilitary groups protecting their territories and smuggling routes to American soil. Further feeding the cycle of murders in Mexico is an increasing diversification of drug gangs' businesses, which now range from drug production and smuggling to extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking. Through an historical, spatial and statistical analysis, this study sets out to deconstruct the current wave of Mexican drug violence, show how it is spreading and why, and how that reflects the evolution of Mexican drug organizations. / text

This thesis aims to underline the paradox surrounding cartels in general and international cartels in particular. While they are almost unanimously recognised as the most egregious form of antitrust violations, real political willingness fails to fight efficiently against cartels. Notwithstanding, this paper shows why international cooperation is essential but still unsatisfactory in eliminating international cartels through concrete examples in domestic laws, such as the Fine Arts Auctions Case and export cartel configurations. Existing national and international instruments present advantages and disadvantages. International competition law, including international cartel issues, is still subject to virulent debates within the international community, particularly with respect to the future of a WTO Multilateral Agreement. It raises the question as to what can be suggested in order to solve aspects of these debates in a satisfactory manner and thereby contribute---modestly---to ameliorate the fight against international cartels.

No description available.

Thesis (LL. M.)--University of Toronto, 2005.