20142 - COMPETITION LAW

If competition is the engine of market economies, competition law is meant to keep competition healthy. Students of economics - whether they become managers, consultants, scholars, or policy makers - must learn how to recognize and go after the business practices that may harm market well-functioning. Therefore, the course discusses the main legal rules that, in the U.S. and EU, forbid anti-competitive agreements, monopolistic practices, and mergers.

General principles  and basic concepts:

• The goals of U.S. and EU competition law.
• Competition law and economics.
• The U.S. and EU enforcing systems.
• The U.S. and EU remedies against anticompetitive business practices.
• Market power and market definition.

Specific business practices:

• Agreements.
• Monopolistic practices.
• Mergers.

Students are required to:

• Identify the goals of competition law and distinguish them from those characterizing other pieces of business regulations.
• Understand the role that economics plays in competition law.
• Know the U.S. and EU enforcing systems.
• Know the remedies that in the U.S. and EU can be applied against anticompetitive practices.
• Use the notion of market power and the rules about agreements, monopolistic practices, and mergers to develop the reasoning necessary to assess different market scenarios.

• Identify the possible antitrust risks inherent to different market scenarios.
• Solve hypothetical cases concerning the lawfulness of business practices.
• Suggest methods of self-evaluation of business activities to avoid or limit the risk of subsequent antitrust liability.
• communicate with appropriate legal vocabulary.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Group assignments

• The course hosts one or more guest speakers, such as antitrust lawyers and officials, to explain general antitrust consulting and enforcement activities.
• Case studies are analyzed in class to teach students how to assess market scenarios. 
• At the end of each of the course’s main sections (agreements, monopolistic practices, and mergers), the instructor prepares a mock exam showing how to solve both theoretical and scenario questions.
• Students are also assigned a leading case to  discuss it in class.

A committed and pro-active attendance is highly recommended.

The individual written exam is made of two scenario questions, complulsory for every student, and either multiple choice questions or a theoretical question. The students taking part to case class presentationd are allowed to chose  between the multiple choice and the theoretical question. The others, instead, must answer the multiple choice questions.   

• Powerpoint presentations available on the Bboard (compulsory).
• List of readings (optional).