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This thesis presents the Chinese and European competition laws on abuse of dominant position. The thesis starts with an introduction, and goes on to present the purpose of the study, which is to determine the similarities and differences between the Chinese and European prohibitions on ADP.       After the introductory part, consisting of background, method, material and previos research, the respective prohibitions are described in different aspects. The aspects are namely system, purpose, scope of application, what constitutes dominance and what constitutes abuse. Thereafter, the two prohibitions are compared. In the comparison, similarities are presented such as similar purposes, similar scope of application, very similar in what constitutes a dominant position and abuse. The systematics however differ more, and so do the rules on extraterritorial application.      In the concluding remarks, the results of the thesis are highlighted and the author shortly analyses the results..

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.

This Master thesis named "Relationship between Competition Law and Intellectual Property Law", deals with the interface between competition law and intellectual property law in the context of European Union law. In the beginning of this thesis authors briefly introduce both legal disciplines and explain their most important terms and goals. The thesis is further divided into three main topics. Firstly, we elaborate on theoretic relationship between competition law and intellectual property in regard to their values, aims and methods of regulation. Then we dive into the issue of conflict of nationally regulated intellectual property law with the internal market and the freedom of movement of goods and services. The second thematic part clarifies the difference between market power and statutory monopoly that is granted to the owners of intellectual property. We analyse the specific issues of finding dominant position of competitors owning intellectual property. Then we examine individual types of behaviour that are considered to be abusive in the context of intellectual property law. Special focus is given to the issue of refusal to licence intellectual property that falls within the definition of essential facility doctrine. Lastly, we concentrate on cartel agreements in the context of intellectual...

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...

Unfair competition in the Internet environment This diploma thesis deals with the manifestations of unfair competition on the Internet. The aims of the diploma thesis were to provide an overview of methods of unfair competition occurring in this specific environment and assess their capability to fulfil the general clause of unfair competition. The diploma thesis is divided into four chapters. The first one of them contains a general introduction to the law of unfair competition in terms of European legislation, namely Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and European Union law. The second chapter discuss the regulation of unfair competition in the Civil Code, the general clause in particular. The thesis analyses the three conditions of the general clause, which must be cumulatively fulfilled, with regard to the Internet environment. In the third chapter of this diploma thesis the concepts specific to the Internet environment, which are often interpreted incorrectly or wrongly, are described. I decided for inclusion of this chapter mainly due to the fact that I use these concepts in the text of this diploma thesis, therefore I wanted to avoid any inaccuracies or confusion that could result from their use without proper explanation. The fourth and most extensive chapter forms...

The increasing volume and value of data in online markets along with tendencies of market concentration makes it an interesting research topic in the field of competition law. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how EU competition law could adapt to the challenges brought on by big data, particularly in relation to Art. 102 TFEU and the EUMR. Furthermore, this thesis analyses the intersection between privacy regulations and competition law. The characteristics pertaining to online markets and data are presented in this thesis in order to accurately describe the specific challenges which arise in online markets. By analysing previous case law of the ECJ as well as the Bundeskartellamt’s Facebook investigation, this thesis concludes that privacy concerns could potentially be addressed within a EU competition law procedure. Such an approach might be particularly warranted in markets where privacy is a key parameter of competition. However, a departure from the traditionally price-centric enforcement of competition law is required in order to adequately address privacy concerns. The research presented in this thesis demonstrates the decreasing importance of market shares in the assessment of a dominant position in online markets, due to the dynamic character of such markets. An increased focus on entry barriers appears to be necessary, of which data can constitute an important barrier. Additionally, consumer behaviour constitutes a source of market power in online markets, which warrants a shift towards behavioural economic analysis. The turnover thresholds of the EUMR do not appear to adequately address data-driven mergers, which is illustrated by the Facebook/WhatsApp merger. Therefore, thresholds based on other parameters are necessary. The value of data also increases the potential anticompetitive effects of vertical and conglomerate mergers, warranting an increased focus on such mergers.

A competition agency represents an independent regulatory institution, which takes the form of an administrative body. A competition authority enables the development of markets and displays to market operators and new players a dedication to the principles of free markets and fair competition. In other words, a competition authority should intervene in a timely manner to correct any anti-competitive behaviour and implement the necessary remedies; it should be equipped with an adequate knowledge of the market in order to make its decisions. Moreover, its involvement should be predictable, that is, it should have a positive influence on markets. Furthermore, a competition agency should continuously evaluate its role as public institution and law enforcer by following the economic and legal evolution of the jurisdiction in which it operates. Until recently, the debate has predominantly revolved around the substance of competition law. However, in recent years, the evaluation of the performance of competition agencies has been embraced by numerous countries, including developing ones. This is because most emerging countries around the world have progressively been opening their domestic markets to competition, which led to giving more power to competition agencies to monitor markets. As this perspective has not been explored in the context of Maghreb countries, which also represent developing economies, this research endeavours to do so. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyse the extent to which the performance of competition agencies in Maghreb countries influences the enforcement of competition law.

This thesis proposes to determine the role of regulation that promotes competition in the telecommunications market in Chile. Regulation has been used in the telecommunications sector at different points in time to fulfil various market needs. Before liberalisation of the telecommunications market, regulation established the parameters of the state-owned telecommunications company. Later, regulations specified the rights and duties of the incumbent. Hypothetically, a higher degree of regulation is necessary to develop new markets, and once progress has been made, a lesser degree of rules is required. This heavier regulation has been called 'regulation for competition', ‘regulatory competition law’ or 'synthetic competition'. Instead, this research proposes the concept of ‘emulated competition’, which is useful to clarify the role of regulation as a mechanism to promote competition. To build the concept of ‘emulated competition’, the thesis reviews the relationship between sectoral regulation and competition law from a theoretical viewpoint. Subsequently, the thesis carries out a comparative analysis between the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) regarding the treatment of certain abuse of dominance cases, particularly with regard to ‘margin squeeze’. To study the Chilean model, the research reviews the constitutional framework of economic regulation and competition law, examining the evolution of pro-competition regulatory tools since the beginning of privatisation. Furthermore, the thesis analyses the case law and regulation issued by the Chilean competition authority in the same period. The analysed topic allows a review of how emulated competition operates in Chile. To sum up, competition law alone is not the best way to introduce competition in the telecommunications market. Therefore, sector-specific regulation has been used to promote competition. In some jurisdictions, it works together with competition law, such as in the EU and Chile. In others, they are incompatible, such as the US. Emulated competition rules could have a higher impact on competition law when they are complements. The research also proposes a model for considering non-economic objectives in competition law matters, and it is a breakthrough in the debate of how to incorporate them in such situations. Finally, the emulated competition concept provides a systematic way of dealing with the intended and unintended effects of pro-competition regulatory tools. The concept itself summarises the contribution to the literature.

The thesis asks whether there is a role for competition law and policy in the music industries. It is argued that there is a need for updated competition policy in order to safeguard both end consumer welfare and the competitive process in these markets, characterised by fast-paced developments and business model innovation. Indeed, the past two decades saw the music industries undergo seismic changes, as even the term 'music industries' was not in use as such before the advent of the internet era and the decline in sales of recordings in physical format. Soon it became obvious that the traditional music industry's end consumers had chosen to migrate to alternative methods of consumption, complementing and substituting between several products for music, such as the digital format, the live concert ticket, and the overall 'music experience'. End consumers chose to completely by-pass the product on offer, meaning the recording of popular music in physical format, as provided top-down by a few multinational record companies, which the thesis identifies as an oligonomy. As alternative business models emerged in the music industries, the members of the oligonomy became followers of end consumer demand, remaining stuck in their notion that the end consumer remains the passive, mass market. Addressing this era as an era of market failure helps to identify the role of the end consumer within the business model of the music industry and to understand emerging trends and patterns in the music industries. Indeed, technological and copyright developments in the late nineteenth century enabled the hardware industries to morph into the recorded music industry, operating under the same business model of copyright exploitation. It follows that the market deriving from this business model is a market prone to monopolisation, resulting in a homogeneous product, designed and delivered top-down to the mass market. The resulting product was not only foreclosed by the few members of the oligonomy, but the operating business model made it impossible for the competition authorities to justify concerns. When the technology allowed for it, the creeping market failure came to the limelight and the end consumer started by-passing the oligonomy to gain access to the foreclosed content, generating consumer demand-driven business models. This translated into business model innovation. To illustrate, the thesis investigates the trial-and-error relationship between the competition authorities of the US, the EU, the UK and the old business model, addressing the failure to appreciate the bottleneck around the creative output that was being created, and the need to safeguard consumer welfare. To compare, the thesis also examines cases in the new business model era, observing the stance of competition authorities towards consumer demand generated business models. The thesis concludes with the affirmation of the need to design welfare enhancing competition policy, which places the end consumer in the forefront. To achieve this, the thesis proposes the consultation of the relevant business model literature.