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EU Competition Policy in Context

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Competition Policy Enforcement in EU Member States

Part of the book series: European Administrative Governance ((EAGOV))

Abstract

This chapter seeks to put the subject of the study, national competition authorities (NCAs), into context by explaining what is competition policy, what are its features in the EU and how the policy has evolved through time. It first reviews the literature on the main goals of competition policy and how they are applied in practice. Then, it accounts for the creation of a European competition policy and illustrates the main changes the policy went through. In conclusion, the chapter gives an overview of the institutional environment in which NCAs operate today: an environment in which policy-making is centralized but enforcement is decentralized. Particular attention is paid to the role of the Commission and of its powerful Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), especially in the current set-up, where DG COMP coordinates all national agencies in the European Competition Network (ECN).

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  1. Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (LUISS), Guido Carli University, Rome, Italy

    Mattia Guidi

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Guidi, M. (2016). EU Competition Policy in Context. In: Competition Policy Enforcement in EU Member States. European Administrative Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58814-2_2

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