Horizontal Agreements and Cartels in EU Competition Law - Tapa dura

The book under review represents a fresh and original approach to the treatment of cartels and horizontal agreements in EU competition law...it is thorough and thought provoking. It is also original in the sense that it offers, with regard to the treatment of cartels, a tandem approach (private practitioner and public enforcer) which tells more than one story and has the added (and extremely useful for private practitioners and in-house counsel) value of many practical tips. It is an excellent work and is highly recommended. (Riccardo Sciaudone, Global Competition Litigation Review)

Investigating, dissolving, and punishing cartels is increasingly a top priority for the European Commission and for national competition authourities. This work offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive examination of the substantive law and procedure of EU competition law as it applies to cartels as well as to other horizontal agreements.

This unique work supplies the views of both private practitioners and public enforcers. The private practitioners discuss their day-to-day experience and share the insights which they believe their fellow-practitioners should be aware of. The public enforcers act in tandem with the private practitioners and add in their contribution the specific points of attention which they recommend practitioners should take into account. The work sets out the ways in which a cartel is defined and organised, how a cartel may be detected and investigated, the issue of liability for cartels (including parental and successor liability), the various sanctions available to investigating authorities, and the prospects for private enforcement and damages actions brought by victims of cartels. It addresses the procedure before the European Commission and the European Courts. Finally, the book deals with information exchanges (including an economic perspective), joint R&D agreements, specialisation agreements and other common types of horizontal agreements like joint purchasing, joint selling and standardisation.

Containing practical advice for practitioners, overviews of the various stages of cartel enforcement, procedural checklists, analysis of the most recent legislation including the new EU damages directive, and written by authors with extensive experience in advising the Commission's legal service in relation to competition law, this is the most comprehensive text available on cartels in EU competition law.