Competition Law’s Sustainability Gap? Tools for an Examination and a Brief Overview

Julian Nowag, Lund University - Faculty of Law; Oxford Centre for Competition Law and Policy has written on Competition Law’s Sustainability Gap? Tools for an Examination and a Brief Overview.

ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is two-fold. First, the paper aims to provide tools for a structured examination of competition law’s perceived inability to address sustainability. The EU framework is chosen as a case study as EU competition law is embedded in the EU’s constitutional framework. As a result, EU competition law is subject to the requirement of Article 11 TFEU. This articles mandates that ‘environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Union's policies and activities, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development.’ The paper thus aims at providing some tools for a closer examination of how such integration can or cannot take place. The second aim of this paper is modest. It aims to provide the reader with a cursory examination of the perceived gap. It shows that EU competition law has developed some tools that can be well be used to foster sustainability in a competition law context, and that these tools are often not EU specific. Thus, these could equally inspire other jurisdictions.