The course will be held twice a week. Students are expected to actively participate in discussions and contribute to course work, individual or group-related.

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The law and economics of competition are keystones in market economies. In addition, they are central tools to promote economic order set by the legal system. In Europe, the national competition law interacts with the EU antitrust rules and regulations in order to create a complex, albeit highly harmonized system of laws that deeply influences the way markets and their players behave. At the same time, theories of economics of competition constantly develop.

The general aim of the course is to develop skills in analyzing competition and sector specific regulation and cases, and to be able to build on microeconomics and industrial economics related studies from earlier semesters. It is also our objective to be able to inform our consumer-self better, to learn how and where to get the information that we need in order to behave responsibly. The development of the self-conscious consumer is therefore very important, just as it is in competition policy and enforcement in Europe. Given consumer protection appears in a special way in the European antitrust and in member states’ laws, we will examine this phenomenon, too.

The course will be composed of two distinct, although strictly related, parts. The first part of shall be dedicated to the economics of competition, while the second will cover case analysis. Antitrust policy and rules heavily depend on underlying theories on how markets work e.g., perfect – workable – competition, monopoly, oligopolistic equilibriums, the intersection between demand and supply and the formation of prices and entry barriers.

We will study the basic notions of competition: law, policy and economics behind. We will learn the difference between industry costs and individual company costs. We also pick up some knowledge about perfect competition, market efficiency, and consumer harm. We will see why monopolies, trusts and conglomerates are highly debated amenities, and what efficiencies they can/cannot bring about to the market. Finally, we will analyze “competitive constraints”, “exit and entry barriers”, and “deadweight loss” and “bottleneck facilities”.  

The course is highly participatory, personal contributions are required. Home assignments complete the path, which lead to the final exam.

Students will better understand economic news, economic moves and company behavior. The course does not aim at providing the students with only theoretical basis for real life. We will analyze and discuss cases such as the Microsoft, the Intel and the Google-investigation. As the course aims at widening the ability to analyze economic and legal issues, it is important that students dedicate themselves to the subjects.

In addition, we aim at developing an understanding of the whys, hows, and whats that often emerge when one hears news about approved or refused/approved merges (e.g. Ryanair-Aer Lingus or the NYSE-Deutsche Borse), economic misconduct and price-raising cooperation between firms (Microsoft, Intel).

We will make serious attempts to grasp what is behind regulatory intervention, why some industries require stronger presence of the state for a longer period. Naturally, a comparison between the EU and the US antitrust enforcement will take up some classes, too (Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission vs European Commission and Member States). Given that competition dynamics are important parts of the functioning of the EU and its single market, we will discuss related topics: EU regulation and competition.

During the third stretch of the course, will analyze EU and US cases from antitrust, state aid and cartels (we will focus on recent cases, mainly from the fast-changing digital markets). Students will become acquainted with the main areas of antitrust intervention: restrictive agreements, abuse of a dominant position, and the control of mergers. We will also look at antitrust procedure and state aid.