Competition law and economics: international cooperation and convergence in competition policy

This chapter discusses issues that arise with “decentralized” enforcement of antitrust across jurisdictions due to the proliferation of independent antitrust authorities. The overview examines potential pitfalls of antitrust proliferation, particularly enforcement externalities. The chapter then focuses on specific enforcement areas such as mergers and acquisitions, single-firm conduct by dominant firms and international cartels. The author suggests potential pathways to achieve policy harmonization across jurisdictions. He proposes that the best way to achieve any commonality and harmonization is through movement toward effects-based antitrust enforcement guided by sophisticated economic reasoning rather than a formalistic approach. The effects-based approach enables antitrust agencies to find common ground and be insulated from political considerations and subjective beliefs, thereby promoting predictability and uniformity in antitrust enforcement.