Competition Law Quiz

Title: Maintaining Market Competition through Competition Law

• Competition law promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies.

• Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement and is also known as antitrust law, anti-monopoly law, and trade practices law.

• The history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire, and it has become global since the 20th century.

• National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support and enforcement networks.

• Modern competition law has historically evolved on a national level to promote and maintain fair competition in markets within the territorial boundaries of nation-states.

• Protecting the interests of consumers and ensuring that entrepreneurs have an opportunity to compete in the market economy are often treated as important objectives of competition law.

• Competition law is closely connected with law on deregulation of access to markets, state aids and subsidies, the privatization of state-owned assets, and the establishment of independent sector regulators, among other market-oriented supply-side policies.

• The English common law of restraint of trade is the direct predecessor to modern competition law later developed in the US.

• The Sherman Act of 1890 attempted to outlaw the restriction of competition by large companies, who co-operated with rivals to fix outputs, prices, and market shares.

• The European Union has its origins in the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) agreement between France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany in 1951.

• At a regional level, EU competition law makes provisions for concentrations, or mergers, and the abuse of a dominant position by companies.

• Competition law has failed to prevent monopolization of economic activity, and the global economy is dominated by a handful of powerful transnational corporations.Overview of Competition Law Around the World

• Competition law has been established in over 111 countries, with 81 of these countries enacting their legislation in the past 20 years.

• The Treaty of Rome established competition law as a central aim of the European Economic Community through prohibiting anti-competitive agreements and the abuse of dominant position.

• The Competition Act, 2002 was enacted in India to replace the obsolete Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act.

• The Anti Monopoly Law of China came into effect in 2008, and since 2018 its enforcement has been the responsibility of the State Administration for Market Regulation.

• All ten member states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have general competition legislation in place as part of the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community.

• Competition law is enforced through competition authorities and private enforcement at a national level.

• The classical perspective on competition was that competition was a long-term dynamic process where firms compete against each other for market dominance, and antitrust was unnecessary.

• Neo-classical synthesis emphasizes that production and distribution of goods and services in competitive free markets maximizes social welfare but acknowledges that perfect competition is seldom observed in the real world.

• The Chicago school advocates for an approach to competition law guided by the proposition that some actions that were originally considered to be anticompetitive could actually promote competition.

• Collusive conduct and cartels, dominance and monopoly, and mergers and acquisitions are common areas of concern for competition law.Competition Law: Mergers and Acquisitions, Intellectual Property, Innovation and Competition

Competition law aims to prevent monopolies, protect consumer welfare and promote competition in the market.

Mergers and acquisitions are regulated by competition law to prevent the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few.

Merger control is about predicting the market's future, considering factors such as economies of scale, technical innovation, transparency, and barriers to entry.

Competition law is also intertwined with intellectual property, such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights.

The question of whether intellectual property rights or competitiveness should be given preference arises often.

Anti-competitive consequences may arise due to the accumulation of intellectual property rights.

A prize instead of a patent is suggested by some scholars as a solution to the problem of deadweight loss.

Armenia ranks lowest among ECA countries in the effectiveness of anti-monopoly policy and competition intensity.

A broadband internet company was forced to pay $13.9 million for predatory pricing, which eliminated competitors.

Price discrimination, predatory pricing, and price fixing are categories of pricing abuse that competition law aims to prevent.