Blueprint for reform of EU competition policy adopted

The European Commission adopted Commissioner Monti’s blueprint for a radical reform of EU competition policy. The blueprint is a follow-up to the White paper on modernisation of the rules concerning articles 81 (restrictive agreements) and 82 (abuses of dominant positions), which former Commissioner Van Miert launched in April 1999.

The main element of the new proposed rules is that the EU abandons its “notification system”, whereby the Commission has to agree to every agreement between companies that might restrict competition. Under the new proposal, companies will have to undertake the assessment of the validity of their deals themselves.

The new system also decentralises some of the current anti-trust powers of the Commission. It will allow national competition authorities and courts to apply the prohibition and exemption aspects of Article 81.

The main reason for the radical reform is the fact that the Commission’s anti-trust troops are spending too much time on agreeing to deals that would have posed no problems anyway. With the new rules, which would give more responsability to member states in policing possible cartels, the Commission’s anti-trust department will be able to focus more on breaking hard-core cartels and other serious restrictions and abuses. The new proposals therefore also would strengthen of the Commission’s investigation powers.

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