Competition Law Enforcement in Italy after the ECN+ Directive: the Difficult Balance between Effectiveness and Over-enforcement

• Authors: Giacomo Dalla Valentina

Abstracts

FR

Presque quinze ans après son adoption, le système d’application décentralisée prévu par le règlement n° 1/2003 a influencé le droit de la concurrence d’une manière difficilement prévisible, tant en termes d’ampleur que de qualité des activités des autorités nationales de concurrence. Plus récemment, la directive dite «ECN+» a été adoptée pour remédier aux lacunes de ce système, à savoir le défaut d’indépendance et de responsabilité de plusieurs autorités nationales de concurrence et un certain degré de divergence au sein du réseau européen de la concurrence. Dans ce scénario, l’autorité italienne de la concurrence a souvent été présentée comme une autorité bien équipée, indépendante et efficace, et – à moins de quelques exceptions – le débat international concernant cette réforme a pour la plupart négligé son impact possible dans le système juridique italien. Le present article vise à établir si, et dans quelle mesure, la directive ECN+ doit affecter l’application du droit de la concurrence en Italie et, en particulier, les guaranties fondamentales d’indépendance et d’efficacité qui constituent le fondement de l’État de droit dans le domaine du droit communautaire de la concurrence.

EN

Almost fifteen years after its adoption, the system of decentralized enforcement laid down in Regulation 1/2003 has shaped competition law in a way that could hardly be predicted, in terms of both magnitude and quality of the activities of National Competition Authorities. More recently, the so-called ‘ECN+ Directive’ was adopted to address the shortcoming of such system, namely a perceived lack of independence and accountability of several NCAs and a certain degree of divergence within the European Competition Network. In this scenario, the Italian Competition Authority has frequently been depicted as a well-equipped, independent and effective enforcer and – with a few notable exceptions – the international debate concerning such reform has mostly overlooked its possible impact within the Italian legal system. This paper aims to assess whether, and to what an extent, the ECN+ Directive should affect the enforcement of competition law in Italy and, in particular, those fundamental guarantees of independence and effectiveness that form the core of the rule of law in the field of EU competition law. independent and effective enforcer and – with a few notable exceptions – the international debate concerning such reform has mostly overlooked its possible impact within the Italian legal system. This paper aims to assess whether, and to what an extent, the ECN+ Directive should affect the enforcement of competition law in Italy and, in particular, those fundamental guarantees of independence and effectiveness that form the core of the rule of law in the field of EU competition law.

Keywords

EN

Competition Law; Public Antitrust Enforcement; Italian Competition; Authority; ECN+ Directive

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Zarządzania
• Journal: Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 20
• Pages: 91-110

Dates

published

2019

Contributors

author

Giacomo Dalla Valentina

• University of Milan - Faculty of Law

References

• C. Beccaria (1819). Of Crimes and Punishments, Ed. Philip H. Nicklin, Philadelphia.
• M. Botta (2017). The draft Directive on the powers of national competition authorities: the glass half empty and half full, European Competition Law Review, 38(10).
• G. Bruzzone (2017). Indipendenza e fissazione delle priorità: quale ruolo per il public enforcement?, contribution to the conference I poteri delle autorità antitrust nazionali e le garanzie: verso la direttiva ECN+ organized by ASSONIME and the Italian Antitrust Association (AAI), Rome, 20 November.
• C. E. Cazzato (2018). Le Linee Guida sulla quantificazione delle sanzioni antitrust. Introduzione al calcolo delle ammende imposte dall’Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, Giappichelli.
• F. Ghezzi (2017). L’efficacia dei poteri di enforcement delle autorità antitrust nazionali nella proposta di Direttiva europea e le possibili conseguenze sul sistema sanzionatorio italiano, Rivista delle Società.
• F. Ghezzi, B. Marchetti (2017). La proposta di direttiva in materia di Rete europea della concorrenza e la necessità di un giusto equilibrio tra efficienza e garanzie, Rivista italiana di diritto pubblico comunitario, 5.
• A. Sinclair (2017). Proposal for a Directive to Empower National Competition Authorities to be More Effective Enforcers (ECN+), Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, vol. 8, no. 10.
• M. Siragusa (2017). contribution to the conference I poteri delle autorità antitrust nazionali e le garanzie: verso la direttiva ECN+ organized by ASSONIME and the Italian Antitrust Association (AAI), Rome, 20 November.
• S. Thomas, M. Dueñas (2018). The draft provisions on antitrust fines in the Commission’s ECN+ Proposal, ZWeR – Zeitschrift für Wettbewerbsrecht, 1.
• F. Wagner-von Papp (2019). Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market (“ECN Plus Directive”), Competition Policy International, January.
• W. P. J. Wils (2011). Discretion and Prioritisation in Public Antitrust Enforcement, in Particular EU Antitrust Enforcement, World Competition, Vol. 34, No. 3.
• W. P. J. Wils (2017). The European Commission’s “ECN+”: proposal for a directive to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers, Concurrences, No. 4.

Identifiers

DOI

10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2019.12.20.3

Biblioteka Nauki

2159122