Political Economy of the EU Competition Policy

Year 2019, Volume: 19 Issue: 2, 241 - 254, 17.06.2019

Hakan Cavlak

https://doi.org/10.18037/ausbd.566792

Abstract

This article explores the effect of European Competition Policy as the means of the EU in global political economy. Competition policy can be identified as an important tool for the EU in its external relations. It both helps to increase the chance of domestic producers to reach foreign markets and regulates foreign firms and their products within the single market. Thus, the competition policy carries the EU up in the international political economy and helps the EU to be recognized as an international actor. Within the Single Market the EU exercise an exclusive power through competition policy. Externally, competition policy is one of the most effective international powers that EU exercises as it has the ability to regulate international mergers or even initiate cartel investigations. Alongside assessing the competition policy, this study focuses especially on some selected international cases of which the EU is a party through its competition law. It is argued, in this article, that the international power of the EU stemmed considerably from its competition policy which is integral in global political economy.

Keywords

EU External Policy, International Relations, Liberalization, Globalization

References

• Cini, M., & McGowan, L. (1998). Competition Policy in the European Union. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
• Cohn, T. H. (2012). Global Political Economy. London: Longman.
• Damro, C. (2001). Building an International Identity: the EU and Extraterritorial Competition Policy. Journal of European Public Policy, 8(2), 208-226.
• De Bièvre, D., & Eckhardt, J. (2010). The Political Economy of EU Anti-dumping Reform. ECIPE Working Paper Series No. 03/2010., 1-18.
• EU. (2003). Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty. Retrieved 12 12, 2015, from EUR-Lex: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32003R0001
• European Commission. (2013, 2 27). In the following section more recent cases concerning competition will be displayed in order to analyze the effect of the competition law on real economy. . Retrieved 1 21, 216, from Press Releases: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-167_en.htm
• European Commission. (2015a). Microsoft case. Retrieved 1 22, 2015, from Competition: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/sectors/ICT/microsoft/
• European Commission. (2015b). Retrieved 1 25, 2016, from European Competition Network: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/ecn/index_en.html
• European Commission. (2015c, 12 3). State aid: Commission opens formal investigation into Luxembourg's tax treatment of McDonald's. Retrieved 01 26, 2016, from European Commission - Press release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-6221_en.htm
• European Commission. (2015d, 04 22). Antitrust: Commission sends Statement of Objections to Gazprom for alleged abuse of dominance on Central and Eastern European gas supply markets. Retrieved 1 25, 2016, from European Commission - Press release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4828_en.htm
• European Commission. (2015e, 4 15). Antitrust: Commission sends Statement of Objections to Google on comparison shopping service. Retrieved 1 25, 2016, from European Commission - Fact Sheet: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-15-4781_en.htm
• European Commission. (2015f, 07 24). Antitrust: Commission sends statement of objections to suspected participants in car battery recycling cartel. Retrieved 01 26, 2016, from European Press Release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5254_en.htm
• European Commission. (2015g, 07 31). Mergers: Commission opens in-depth investigation into proposed acquisition of TNT by FedEx. Retrieved 01 26, 26, from European Commission - Press release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5463_en.htm
• European Commission Directorate-General for Communication. (2014). The EU explained: Competition. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
• Gilpin, R. (1987). The political economy of international relations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Jones, A., & Sufrin, B. (2011). EU Competition Law: Text, Cases, and Materials. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Motta, M. (2004). Competition Policy: Theory and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Whish, R., & Bailey, D. (2015). Competition Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.