The Master's thesis provides readers with a basic analysis of Commission Regulation 330/2010. The mentioned regulation confers a benefit of the so called block exemption on broad spectrum of vertical agreements including in this context also certain agreements among competing undertakings. Since agreements enjoying the benefit of the block exemption are presumed to meet criteria stipulated in Article 101 (3) TFEU, the block exemption eliminates legal uncertainty which undertakings whose agreements distort competition within the meaning of Article 101 (1) TFEU would otherwise face. It follows that it is not necessary to examine such agreements on its merits. Thus, transaction costs are reduced. Structure of the thesis is chosen so that it reflects three main questions concerning applicability of the block exemption, namely whether (i) an agreement falls within the scope of Commission Regulation 330/2010, whether (ii) it contains black clauses (hard-core restrictions) and whether (iii) it contains (non-severable) grey clauses. After a brief description of wider connections and general issues in Chapter One, in Chapter Two the thesis deals with the scope of Commission Regulation 330/2010 with respect to the notion of vertical agreement, the role of intellectual property rights, the treatment of...

My diploma thesis called "Distribution Agreements" treats of distribution agreements as one possible way of distribution of products. Distribution agreements are a type of distribution relations arrangement where the purchaser buys products from the supplier in order to distribute them. The topic of distribution agreements is interesting especially from the reason that the distribution agreements are a very frequent and necessary legal instrument in business relations, but are not legaly regulated on national, european or even on the international scale. Neither the law theory treats of them too much. On the other side, there is a quite broad decision practice of Competion Authority and practice of the European Court of Justice. These decisions were used as a basis of this thesis. Distribution agreements do not only handle the contractual relationship, but they have often anti-competitive effects. In this diploma thesis I handle both the aspect of contractual law and the aspect of competition law. The aim of the work is especially to describe the distribution agreement in the sence of an innominate contract type and to determine its essentials. The core of the work is a categorization of distribution agreements into individual types of distribution agreements, their characteristics and finding...

Cette dissertation concerne l'analyse des problématiques économiques introduites par la numérisation et par la parution des nouveaux réseaux et supports numériques dans l'économie des médias. Le passage du modèle analogique et physique au modèle numérique, en opérant une séparation du concept d’expression signifiante et du support qui permet sa circulation auprès d'un large public, impose un recadrage des procédés de création et production dans plusieurs domaines de l'industrie des médias. En utilisant le cas d'étude de l’industrie de l'édition des magazines, l'introduction de cette dissertation analyse les enjeux économiques plus urgents pour une marque éditoriale face à la numérisation, au niveau d'entreprise et du secteur industriel. Dans le premier chapitre, on va approfondir l’analyse en explorant la littérature existante dans le domaine des effets de la numérisation et de la régulation dans l'économie des médias. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous analysons les dynamiques d'adoption d'une technologie numérique associée avec un réseau, dans contexte où les contenus media sont des biens complémentaires essentiels et en présence d'externalités positives associées avec le déploiement du réseau. La contribution originale du modèle que nous allons montrer est la possibilité d'évaluer différentes qualités de subsides au déploiement et différentes valeurs de l'innovation technologique. dans le troisième et dernier chapitre, nous développons un modèle pour analyser la tarification des produits soumis au droit d'auteur dans un marché biface avec réseaux de distribution multiples. / This dissertation deals with the economic issues introduced by digitization and by the roll-out of innovative networks and supports in the economics of Media goods. The switch from a “physical analogic model” to a “digitized model”, by separating the concepts of meaningful expression from the traditional support allowing for publishing contents, imposes a rethinking of many media industries' business models. Using the publishing industry as a study case, in the introduction we analyze the key economic issues emerging for magazine publishers facing digitization, both at the firm level and at the industry level, where new strategic interactions may occur, changing the traditional dynamics in the value chain. In the first chapter we then proceed to explore recent research efforts focusing on the effects of digitization and regulation on Media economics. The main contribution of this analysis is that it tries to conjugate the economic literature that analyses technology related issues generated by digitization with contributions analysing the impacts of new publishing protocols, following a value-chain based approach.In fact, the originality of the problem is that digitization is quite not just a technologic innovation, improving efficiency through the value chain but it is also a new written language. The study of all the different implications of digitiziation is thus essential in order to fully understand the emerging economic models in media industries. Economists will find in this chapter not only the more important contributions on pricing and bundling in digital two-sided markets or multi-channel distribution models, but also interesting contributions from other specialists, analysing questions related to regulatory framework and even epistemologic issues. In the second chapter we analyse the adoption dynamics of a digital technology associated with a network , when media goods are essential complements and there are positive externalities associated to a succesfull adoption. The original contribution of this model is that it allows for different types of subsidies and different stand-alone values for technology. In the third and last chapter, we develop a pricing model for copyrighted contents in a two-sided market with multi-channel distribution. We analyze both the case of a firm producing only on one market (digital or physical) and of a firm producing the substitutable versions in the two markets. We find that: (i) in the digital market the “free dailies” business model is sustainable only if the number of publishers is limited. (ii) Publishers that are active already in the traditional channel with relevant market shares should “defend” their market share setting higher prices for the digital versions of their products. (iii) Unless both the advertising revenues per copy and the total sales in the digital markets grow larger than the traditional market, a traditional publisher should keep operating in the traditional market. (iv) If the total cannibalization grows to be more than proportional the optimal strategy for a publisher can be not to produce the digital version of a given product.

The thesis deals with legislative regulation of franchising in the Czech Republic and which areas of law have influence on franchise agreements and how is this relationship to other areas of law solved. The thesis focuses on content of franchise agreements, on typical provisons of franchise agreements according to antitrust law, on protection of intellectual property rights, on unfair competiton and on personal data protection. Some aspects are discussed according to laws of the USA and Germany and are compared to Czech legislation. Available court decisions which deal with franchising were also used in the thesis. Gained knowledge was used to analyze franchise agreement of NATURHOUSE and to suggest some improvemenst in the agreement.

Les accords verticaux correspondent pour l'essentiel au monomarquisme, à la distribution exclusive, à l'achat exclusif, à la distribution sélective, à la franchise et à la concession. Bien que leur diversité soit grande, ils constituent la plupart du temps des accords "de" concurrence car ils développent la concurrence intermarques. L'objectif principal de cette étude est de rechercher et d'analyser les critères d'appréciation des accords verticaux de distribution en droit de la concurrence français, communautaire et argentin. En droit de la concurrence communautaire, les accords de distribution font l'objet d'une importante réglementation et d'une riche jurisprudence. Les règles relatives aux accords verticaux ont subi une réforme qui a abouti à l'adoption d'un nouveau règlement d'exemption par catégorie (Règlement n° 330/2010) accompagné de nouvelles Lignes directrices sur les restrictions verticales. De nombreux accords verticaux bénéficient ainsi d'une exemption catégorielle leur conférant une présomption de légalité et en l'absence que ces accords bénéficient d'un règlement d'exemption par catégorie, ils demeurent tout de même exemptables, à condition que soit établi un bilan économique positif, notamment en raison de gains d'efficience. À la différence du droit communautaire de la concurrence, le droit argentin de la concurrence relatif aux accords verticaux n'a pas adopté de règlements d'exemption par catégorie et les autorités de concurrence argentines procèdent à une analyse au cas par cas des accords au travers de la règle de raison ainsi qu'à une analyse de leur incidence sur l'intérêt économique général. / Vertical agreements mostly correspond to single branding, exclusive distribution, exclusive purchase, selective distribution, franchising and concession. Although their variety is large, most of the time they constitute competition agreements because they increase inter-brand competition. The main aim of this study is to look for and to analyse the assessment criteria of distribution vertical agreements in French, European and Argentine Competition Laws. In European Competition Law, an important set of regulations and a rich case-law exist concerning distribution agreements. The rules concerning vertical agreements have been reformed ; as a consequence of this reform, a new Block Exemption Regulation (Regulation No 330/2010) has been adopted and accompanied by new Guidelines on Vertical Restraints. Lots of vertical agreements also benefit from Block Exemption which confers them a presumption of legality and in case these agreements do not benefit from the Block Exemption Regulation, they still can be exempted on the condition that a positive economic balance should be established, notably in view of efficiency gains. Unlike European Competition Law, the Argentine Competition Law concerning vertical agreements has not adopted Block Exemption Regulation and the Argentine competition authorities analyse each agreement in the light of the Rule of Reason and analyse their impact on the general economic interest.