Deal or No Deal?

Abstract

The competition policy of the European Commission has recently shifted towards including more and more consensual arrangements with business companies. While this tendency is already present for a while in merger policy where the Commission has more and more turned away from prohibiting mergers and towards consensually finding remedies in intensive negotiation rounds with the merging companies, cartel and antitrust policy only very recently has become a field for consensual arrangements in terms of the new settlement policy. This chapter describes the tendency towards more consensual arrangements and analyzes the pros and cons of such a development. In balance, the paper recommends a cautious approach because the disdvantages of such a policy evolution are likely to outweigh its benefits.

Note: Downloadable document is in German.

Keywords: european competition policy, merger control, antitrust policy, voluntary arrangements, consensual arrangements

JEL Classification: K21, L40