Conflicts between Competition Law and Regulation in the EC Electronic Communications Sector: An Analysis of the Institutional Framework

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

I have been very interested in my own scholarship in institutional choice to address issues where there is an antitrust overlap with another form of regulation (see here and here).  One area in which we see these institutional choices play out is electronic communications. Liyang Hou of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven's Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT writes on this issue in his paper Conflicts between Competition Law and Regulation in the EC Electronic Communications Sector: An Analysis of the Institutional Framework.

ABSTRACT: The EC regulatory framework in the electronic communications sector is characterized by the concurrent application of competition law and sector specific regulatory rules. An institutional defect of this dual-regulatory model is the risk of duplication of procedures between competition authorities and regulatory authorities. The 2002 regulatory package issued by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union for electronic communications services and networks makes a great contribution toward resolving the institutional conflicts between the two groups of institutions by establishing a cooperation mechanism. However, the imperfection of the current cooperation mechanism may not fully eradicate institutional conflicts. This paper offers some thoughts on a potential reform of the current cooperation mechanism between competition authorities and regulatory authorities with regard to the residue institutional conflicts.